Authors : C.P. Stanley , E.G. Asekomeh and A.A Essien
Abstract: A significantly higher prevalence of current mental disorders has been found in both asymptomatic and symptomatic Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)seropositive persons compared with seronegative controls. On the other hand, psychiatric illnesses are often characterized by behaviours that put patients at risk of being HIV infected. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of HIV seropositivity among patients with psychiatric morbidity presenting at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) and to see how this rate compares with that of the general population. All psychiatric patients presenting at the Neuropsychiatry Out-patient Clinics and the Accident and Emergency department of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between January 2002 and December 2004 were prospectively studied. Full case history was obtained and a detailed mental and physical examination was carried out on each patient within 48 h of presentation. Each patient was also screened routinely for seropositivity to HIV I and II after counseling. One thousand three hundred and twenty five psychiatric cases were evaluated over the study period. A total of 74 of these individuals (39 males and 35 females) were found to be seropositive to HIV-67(90.5%) for HIV 1 and 2 while the other 7(9.5%) for only HIV 1. The prevalence of HIV seropositivity for this population was thus 5.58%. A higher proportion, 52(70.3%) of the HIV seropositive patients were under the age of 40 years. The three most frequent psychiatric diagnoses among the seropositive patients was substance abuse disorder, moderate to severe depression with psychotic features and organic mental disorder. The study population�s HIV seropositive prevalence of 5.58% is comparable to the national prevalence of 5.8% as at the time of this study.
C.P. Stanley , E.G. Asekomeh and A.A Essien , 2007. HIV Seropositivity among Adult Nigerians with Psychiatric Morbidity . Research Journal of Medical Sciences, 1: 215-218.