Childhood Abuse link to HIV

In a study conducted by Duke University over a two year period involving 600 HIV positive patients, it was found that one in four patients were sexually abused as children. Traumatic childhood experiences were also linked to poorer overall health. More than half of the patients involved in the study had experienced sexual or physical abuse in their lifetimes. Half of the patients had experienced three or more traumatic experiences, including sexual and physical abuse or witnessing domestic violence as a child, a parent’s suicide attempt or suicidal thoughts, or losing a child. Duke University professor Brian Pence said “For whatever outcome we looked at, psychological trauma ended up being a predictor of worse medical outcomes and poorer health-related behaviors.”
More traumatic life experiences were linked with unprotected sex, skipping antiretroviral treatments, recent emergency room visits and hospitalizations. HIV positive patients with more traumatic experiences were more likely to see their health decline or die during the study period.
Most surprising to researchers was that the effects of past trauma on current behaviors and health was not explained by the usually factors.
"We would expect people with a history of exposure to trauma to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or other mental health concerns, like drug abuse or poor coping skills, and that these things in turn would more fully explain why they had lower adherence to their medications and worse health," Pence said. "But, we found that trauma history was still associated with bad health outcomes independent of mental health status, drug use or coping styles. So we have more to learn about exactly how past traumatic experiences exert influence on behaviors and health outcomes years down the road."
Healthcare professionals need more training in identifying HIV patients who have undergone trauma so as to better understand and implement tools to help these patients be more diligent about using protection, taking medications, and taking more control of their health.


Source:http://ping.fm/2p5Ou