Excellent article on mental health and HIV. The medical field and society need to normalize mental health. A seminal article from the Southern Medical Journal in January 2005 queried more than 8800 patient about the time of HIV acquisition and found that 61% were actively abusing a substance, 32% were dealing with a mental health condition, and 23% were dealing with both substance abuse and mental health. Another statistic indicates that at any given time 25% of patients living with HIV ae also dealing with depression.
Mental health disproportionately affects patients living with HIV compared to the HIV negative population with the three most common are bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression. Mental health and substance abuse must be integrated in to daily HIV care and normalizing mental health through demystifying and destigmatizing are our first steps.
