HIV: A Psychological Consequence

There are number of consequences of HIV/AIDS but in this paper reviews the literature on psychological consequences. HIV is a significantly related to Psychological problems like mental health problem, including substance-use disorders, depression and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide and coping, cognitive disorders (including dementia), psychotic disorders, disorders of personality can influence behavior, memory disturbance, concentration problems and slowness of thinking as symptoms that are reported more often by individuals with HIV-related symptoms. People with HIV often suffer from depression and anxiety as they adjust to the impact of the diagnosis of being infected and face the difficulties of living with a chronic life-threatening illness, for instance shortened life expectancy, complicated therapeutic regimens, stigmatization, and loss of social support, family or friends. HIV infection can be associated with high risk of suicide or attempted suicide. The psychological predictors of suicidal ideation in HIV-infected individuals include concurrent substance-use disorders, past history of depression and presence of hopelessness. Treisman et al. claim that most HIV positive psychiatric patients actually suffer from multiple disorders. They classify these disorders into the following four categories, this appear in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). (i) Problems that Emerge from Life Circumstances, (ii) Brain Diseases, (iii) Personality and Temperament Disorders and (iv) Disorders of Motivated Behavior. HIV infection has direct effects on the central nervous system, and causes neuropsychiatric complications including HIV encephalopathy, depression, mania, cognitive disorder, and frank dementia, often in combination. Infants and children with HIV infection are more likely to experience deficits in motor and cognitive development compared with HIV negative children.