A study of more than 300 children and adolescents with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) revealed no association between specific antiretroviral therapy and the severity of psychiatric disorders. In “Human Immunodeficiency Virus Disease Severity, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Functional Outcomes in Perinatally Infected Youth,” Principal Investigator Sharon Nachman, M.D., of Stony Brook School of Medicine, and colleagues detail this finding and others in the Online First edition of Archives of Pediatrics & Adult Medicine.
Children living with HIV often develop psychiatric and behavioral disorders. A major concern for health professionals is if the severity of HIV illness or use of specific antiretroviral therapy regimens put these children at an increased risk for mental health problems.
“Our study indicates that specific antiretroviral therapy and severity of HIV infection in children and adolescents are not necessarily associated with the level of mental health problems experienced by these patients, which counters the conventional thinking about the relationship between HIV and the development of psychiatric disorders,” says Dr. Nachman, Associate Dean for Research, and Professor of Pediatrics at Stony Brook School of Medicine.
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