HIGHLY ACTIVE ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY AND PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN HIV INFECTED PATIENTS FROM SOUTH-EAST REGION OF ROMANIA

Draganescu M.,^{1, 3} Baroiu Liliana,^{1, 3, *} Iancu Alina,^{2, 3, *} Modrigan M.,³ Diaconu C.,⁴ Dumitru C.^{3, 4}

¹Clinical Medical Department, Medicine and Pharmacy Faculty, ”Dunarea de Jos” University, Galati, Romania - ²Morphological Department, Medicine and Pharmacy Faculty, ”Dunarea de Jos” University, Galati, Romania - ³Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital “Sf. Cuv. Parascheva” Galati, Romania - ⁴Pharmaceutical Science Department, Medicine and Pharmacy Faculty, ”Dunarea de Jos” University, Galati, Romania

Introduction: Antiretrovirals are chemical compounds used in the HIV infection therapy and some are associated with psychiatric side effects. These psychiatric effects can overlap a pre-existent or newly occurring psychiatric conditions. Since HIV infection is a chronic disease with a prolonged evolution and a lethal predisposition, HIV-infected patients are at higher risk to develop mental disorders and at the same time to be under- diagnosed for these co-morbidities. 

Methods: The study was conducted on 151 HIV patients from HIV/AIDS Clinic who agreed to fill in the specific questionnaire. The Millon Clinical Inventor Multiaxial test was used, a questionnaire corresponding to the Mental Disorders Diagnostic and Statistics Manual-IV. The Depression Scale Beck was used to set a diagnosis for depression. Demographic features, CD4 lymphocyte values, viral loads, CDC stage, or the average duration of the disease were taken from the patients’ records. Statistical analysis MedCalc 15.8.

Results: The group consisted in 71 men (47%) and 80 women (53%) 1:1.12 ratio, mean age was 28.8 years, 51% from urban areas, and the majority had been infected in infancy. All patients were taking antiretroviral therapy. More than ¾ of the patients – 122 (80%) - have been diagnosed with psychiatric disorder. The most prevalent disorder was generalized anxiety disorder (72.2% of patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders), followed by depression. Anxiety seems to equally affect men and women, but with older age, sexually infected. Depression and posttraumatic stress disorder have been particularly diagnosed in the patients from the former pediatric cohort but with considerably lower occurrences as compared to other studies. No correlation between non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and the psychiatric disorders occurrence was found.

Conclusions: Psychiatric disorders of HIV infected patients have different recurrences in keeping with the cultural and epidemiologic context but no connections between the antiretroviral treatment and the occurrence of psychiatric disorders was established.