HIV Status, Substance Dependency, and Psychiatric Diagnosis

The differences in DSM-III-R psychiatric diagnoses between HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients were assessed. Subjects were patients admitted for psychiatric treatment to a metropolitan, state-supported facility. Experimental group subjects consisted of all adult patients identified as HIV-positive. Control group subjects were non-HIV-positive adult patients of the same gender and within 10 years in age of the experimental group subjects. Results suggest that HIV-positive subjects were significantly more likely to have received a personality disorder diagnosis and to have a history of intravenous psychoactive substance use. The likelihood of HIV-positive subjects to have a lower incidence of thought disorder diagnosis than non-HIV-positive subjects approached significance. No significant differences were obtained for diagnoses of psychoactive substance use disorders, psychoactive substance-induced organic mental disorders, mood disorders, or schizoaffective disorder. The diagnosis of a personality diso...