COMMON MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS IN HIV-INFECTED PERSONS

Abstract

The aim of the work is to establish the clinical features of borderline neuropsychiatric disorders in patients with HIV infection in the first clinical stage of the disease.

Patients and methods. A comparative study of borderline neuropsychiatric disorders in the first clinical stage of HIV infection (main group – 86 patients) and in persons with a false-positive HIV screening test (comparison group – 43 patients).

Research results. Clinical and psychopathological examination revealed that all 100.0 % of patients in the main group suffer from clinically severe borderline neuropsychiatric disorders. In the comparison group, these symptoms were manifested in 67.4 % of individuals.

Patients with HIV infection are registered the most often: organic mental disorders, mature personality disorders and behavioral disorders, combined mental disorders, neurotic disorders, affective disorders.

The detected mental pathology depends on the premorbid background and the impact of HIV infection. Premorbid mentally harmonious people develop neurotic and affective disorders after receiving information about HIV infection.

The predominance of organic mental disorders in patients in the studied groups is explained by the fact that HIV is layered on a previous premorbid background, altered by psychoactive substance use, traumatic brain injury and chronic somatic diseases.

The frequency of adult personality disorders is due to adverse microsocial factors in childhood and adolescence and pathological development of the individual after HIV infection.

The impact of HIV infection on the mental health of patients is manifested in a significantly higher frequency of “layers” of organic, neurotic, affective disorders on existing personality disorders.