EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIOURAL DISORDERS IN HIV SEROPOSITIVE ADOLESCENTS IN URBAN UGANDA

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the emotional and behavioral problems of HIV sero-positive

adolescents.

Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study

Setting: A specialised HIV/ AIDS Health Care Centre, the Mildmay Centre, In Kampala,

Uganda.

Subjects: A sample of 82 HIV sero-positive adolescents was consecutively enrolled

for the study.

Results: Over half (55.6%) of the subjects were female. They were mostly (88.9%) under

the age of 15 years, orphans (97.6%) and stayed with non-parental relatives (68.3%).

Almost two thirds (60.9%) of them were in the HIV/ AIDS clinical disease stage III

or IV and were not on ARVs drugs. Forty two (51.2%) of the subjects had signifi cant

psychological distress (SRQ-25 scores > 6) and 14 (17.1 %) had attempted suicide within

the last 12 months. Their specifi c psychiatric disorders, made using ICD-10 criteria,

were: Anxiety 45.6%, depression 40.8%, somatisation 18.0%, seizures 8.4%, mania 1.2%

and HIV-associated progressive encephalopathy 4.8%.

Conclusion: HIV/AIDS infection in adolescence was associated with considerable

psychological problems and the presence of major psychiatric disorders. With the

current increasing availability of effective antiretroviral therapy, many of these

children are surviving into adolescence, thus calling for the development of adolescent

friendly HIV medical and psychological support and treatment services in developing

countries such as Uganda.