1 Departments of Mental Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
2 Internal Medicine College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
3 Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2023, 17(02), 697-708
Article DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2023.17.2.0987
Received on 16 June 2022; revised on 31 January 2023; accepted on 03 February 2023
Background: HIV, a communicable disease, is assuming an alarming epidemic dimension with increasing level of psychiatric co-morbidity and mortality. These psychiatric comorbidities appear to be generally under-recognized and under-treated by clinicians.
Aim: The aim of this study, therefore, was to determine the pattern and prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidity among PLWHIV attending the virology clinic of UPTH.
Methodology: Following ethical approval from the ethical committee of the hospital and informed consent from the participants, 230 subjects were recruited based on the study’s inclusion and exclusion criteria, via a systematic random sampling. PLWHIV were further administered with the study’s instruments including the socio-demographic questionnaire and GHQ-12. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 20 statistical package. Confidence interval was set at 95% while P- value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: One hundred and sixty (69.6%) out of the total number of 230 PLWHIV studied had no psychiatric diagnosis while 70 (30.4%) had different associated psychiatric morbidity. Of the total number with psychiatric diagnosis, 38 (16.0%) had depressive illness. Generalized anxiety disorder was diagnosed in 8 (3.5%) respondents, while 4 (1.7%) respondents had mixed anxiety and depression. Nine (9) (3.8%) patients had adjustment disorder while 3 (1.3%) females were diagnosed with hyposexual dysfunction. Six (2.6%) patients had alcohol abuse, 11 (5.8%) were diagnosed with PTSD and only 1 patient (0.4%) had panic disorder.
Conclusion: The findings of this study support the impression that HIV infection is a chronic debilitating illness, associated with psychiatric co-morbidity. The results support the call that the management of patients with HIV should include attention to their mental health status in order to enhance the quality of care.
Parttern; Prevalence, Psychiatric co-morbidity; PLWHIV; UPTH
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Aborlo Kennedy Nkporbu, Ibitrokoeme Faye Korubo and Catherine Nonye Stanley. Pattern and prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity among people living with HIV (PLWHIV) at the University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital (UPTH). World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2023, 17(2), 697-708. Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2023.17.2.0987