Mood and substance use disorders in older adults with HIV/AIDS: methodological issues and preliminary evidence

To review methodological issues and available data regarding the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in HIV-positive people over the age of 50 years.

We were unable to find any published data providing prevalence rates of depression and substance use disorders, the most common psychiatric disorders, for HIV-positive adults over 50 years, compared with HIV-seronegative adults over 50 years or HIV-positive adults under the age of 50 years. Epidemiological data from population studies in the United States and internationally consistently show a substantial decline in the rates of depression and substance use disorders with progressive age in the general population. Preliminary data in our small sample suggest that, unlike HIV-seronegative older adults whose rates of disorder decline substantially compared with younger adults, this decline was not observed for older HIV-positive adults.

Given the relative infrequency of disorder and the need to control both for age and HIV status, a large-scale study with four groups is required: HIV-positive men and women under and over 50 years of age, and HIV-negative men and women under and over 50 years of age.