Abstract:
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) impairs the physiological, behavioral and social development of the infected-children. With the advent of better antiretroviral-therapies (ARTs), the infected children are surviving well beyond adolescence accompanying with complicated ramification of management with bio-psycho-social factors. Presently, 76 children (53 perinatally HIV+ and 23 of their HIV- sibling) are screened for psychiatric- morbidities with Developmental-Psychopathology-Check-List (DPCL) which is a modified version of widely used protocol ‘Child Behavior Check List (CBCL)’. Positively screened for psychopathology was regarded as psychiatrically morbid. In South-East Asian perspective, this type of investigation is scanty. Here, we investigate and report the psychiatric-morbidity status of vertically HIV infected children with a longitudinal comparison to their HIV- sibling. The present results suggest that 42.1% of the study-population suffers from psychiatric morbidity. Among the HIV+, 45.28% suffer from psychiatric-morbid constituting emotional-disorder, 41.67%, conduct-disorder, 37.50%, somatization 33.33%, learning-disorder, 29.16%, whereas in the HIV- group, 34.79% suffers from psychiatric morbidity mainly with emotional disorder [87.50%]. The age as an independent variable is noticed to be associated significantly (p < 0.001) with psychiatric-morbidity. Other variables amongst sex, CD4+ count, livingstatus of parents, caregiver-status was found to have certain extent of association with psychiatric-status. The present comparison with the more reliable control like HIV- sibling will help for the first time, to characterize better the infection association of psychiatric-morbidity of the HIV+ children. Advances should be espoused for the better survival of HIV infected children with improved ARTs application incorporating with advanced psychiatric-services.
