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August 18, 2010

PTSD Symptoms Common Among People With HIV

POZ: "Three HIV-related events most strongly predicted developing PTSD. They were: experiencing physical symptoms, witnessing HIV-related death and, unexpectedly, receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. Though 55 percent of the survey respondents rated being diagnosed with HIV as a traumatic event, this was not correlated strongly with the development of PTSD, nor were feelings of shame or guilt over becoming HIV positive.

"Theuninck and his colleagues stated that receiving HIV treatment was both “the strongest predictor and an unexpected finding. The emotional distress evoked by receiving treatment was more highly correlated with [post-traumatic stress symptoms] than any other stressor.”

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