Psychosexual dysfunction patients with HIV

Abstract

Introduction. Epidemiological data analysis proves that in the last quarter of 2008 the number of HIV infected people in Poland reached nearly 12,000. Antiretroviral therapy helps infected patients live longer in a good state of health. For those patients in early stages, who have access to the therapy, important things are psychological and sexual wellness. The purpose of the study was to assess the psychosexual problems of the patients infected with HIV.
Material and methods. A questionnaire study has been performed in a group of 35 HIV infected patients. The research has been based on a personal questionnaire. To assess the psychological wellness the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) scale has been applied. To assess the sexual problems we have applied Mell-Krat scale kromieżycka version alongside the author’s own questionnaire to asses sexual biography, based upon the research of the Sexuality of Polish Society (Pfizer, 2002).
Results. Average age of the respondents was 36,2 years, most of them were men (75%), average infection period was 8,2 years and many of respondents (37,5%) didn’t know how they had been infected. Most of them were co-infected with HCV (81,25%). Antiretroviral therapy was applied by the majority of patients (51%). The average result obtained in Mell-Krat scale was 35,3 for men (optimal is 39), women result was 46,25 (optimal for women is 55). Mell-Krat scale is used to assess the sexual needs and reactions. We have obtained following mean results in GHQ-28 scale: somatic symptoms - 13,06, anxiety/insomnia - 10,7, social dysfunction - 11,5, severe depression - 7,38. The outcomes were similar for both women and men. Most of the respondents had permanent partners (81%), in most cases partners were infected with HIV (57%). For nearly 50% patients sexual acts play a very important role in their lives.
Conclusions. The preliminary study seems to confirm our hypothesis about lack of full mental wellbeing and presence of sexual disorders or sexual problems psychosexual disturbances in HIV infected people. The group of 35 patients, however, is too small to draw conclusions, thus, the study on bigger group (100 patients) is going to be performed.