Article Sidebar
Published:
May 31, 2018Article Details
http://www.sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/pages/view/policies#part_4
Copyright
The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.
Licensing and publishing rights
Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose.
AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
Read more here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.
Previously published work may have been published under a different licence. We advise the community that if they would like to reuse the work to consult the applicable licence at article level.
Main Article Content
chart review of human immunodeficiency virus status in patients admitted with psychosis in Durban, South Africa
Abstract
Background: Comorbid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among patients with psychotic disorders is associated with a poorer outcome. Understanding the association of HIV infection with demographic and clinical variables may provide clues to modify risk factors and outcomes.
Aim: To describe and compare the socio-demographic and clinical profile of patients admitted with psychotic disorders with and without HIV infection.
Method: A retrospective chart review of 100 adult patients consecutively admitted with psychosis and HIV infection and compared to 101 patients with psychosis without HIV infection.
Results: HIV-infected patients with psychotic disorders were more likely to be females (74.0%), younger than 50 years (94.0%) and less likely to have secondary education than HIV- negative patients with psychotic disorders (56.0% vs. 72.0%). HIV-infected patients were also less likely to be diagnosed as having schizophrenia (33.0%), had higher rates of medical (73.0%) and psychiatric (21.0%) comorbid disorders and were less likely to report lifetime nicotine and
cannabis use (p = 0.047 and p = 0.011). HIV-negative patients with psychotic disorders were more likely to be readmitted to the unit in the next 12 months (p < 0.05). HIV-infected patients with psychotic disorders had increased abnormal haematological results (33.0%).
Conclusion: Patients with psychotic disorders and HIV infection had several negative prognostic factors such as younger age, increased rates of medical and psychiatric comorbidity, abnormal haematological results and longer length of admission periods. This suggests the need to target HIV prevention programmes at young females with mental illness and provide an integrated healthcare service with medical and psychiatric assessment and care for patients with HIV and psychosis.
