Volume : 3, Issue : 6, June - 2014

A Comparative Study of Phenomenology of Depression Between the HIV Positve Patients Attending HIV Clinic and the Patients Attending Psychiatry OPD

Dr Rohit Kant Srivastava

Abstract :

Depression is very common in HIV positive patients. It often goes undiagnosed and untreated as it is assumed that depressive symptoms are an inevitable reaction to being diagnosed with HIV. Depression not only causes more suffering in HIV positive patients but also contributes to poor adherence to treatment. Keeping this fact in a view this cross sectional comparative study of phenomenology of depression between the HIV positive patients attending HIV clinic and the patients attending psychiatry OPD was conducted. The study included 132 HIV positive patients and 105 psychiatry OPD patients. Depression was diagnosed on SCID–I ( based on DSM IV ) and phenomenology was studied on first 27 questions of SADS–CB. Appropriate standardized statistical tools were applied. Among the screened HIV positive patients , 23.48% (31 patients) were found to be suffering from depression. There was no statistically significant difference was found in phenomenology of depression between two group. The study concluded that depression is very high in HIV positive patients. Therefore every HIV positive patients attending the HIV clinic should also be assessed thoroughly for depression.