People with HIV have increased risk for developing some mental health disorders

• People with HIV had a higher risk of incident mental health disorders.
• This association was stronger among people with HIV who were not receiving HIV treatment vs. those who received treatment.

People with HIV have an increased risk for developing composite mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, although receiving ART may lower this risk, researchers found.

“People living with HIV have a higher risk of developing composite mental illness, depression, anxiety, and severe mental illness compared with persons without HIV,” Paddy Ssentongo, MD, PhD, MPH, assistant professor, at Penn State College of Medicine’s department of medicine and epidemiology, told Healio. “We wished to investigate whether HIV treatment mitigates the risk of mental health disease among people living with HIV.”

To evaluate rates and risk for developing mental health disorders (MHDs), Ssentongo and colleagues conducted a real-world study using data from the MerativeTM MarketScan claims database.

Through the database, the researchers identified patients both with and without an HIV diagnosis and used the multivariable stratified Cox proportional hazards regression model to examine the association of HIV treatment status with MHD. They also assessed the effect of ART on the possible associations.

In total, 313,539 people were included in the analysis, accounting for 671,880 person‐years of follow‐up. Overall, 46,235 incident MHD cases were recorded. The researchers found that people with HIV had a higher risk of incident MHD, even more so if they were not receiving HIV treatment (adjusted HR = 1.85; 95% CI, 1.79-1.92 for people with HIV receiving treatment vs. aHR = 2.7; 95% CI, 2.59-2.82 for those not receiving treatment). Additional data showed that patients who were male vs. female, aged 18 to 34 years vs. those 55 to 63 years, and who were not overweight or obese had strong associations between HIV diagnosis and MHD.

“Mental health disorders should be screened in patients with HIV and should be treated,” Ssentongo said. “However, better still, continued and renewed effort for screening of HIV and linking to care is critical to improving the quality of life and mental health of those who are infected.”

By Caitlyn Stulpin