The Association between CD-4 Level, Stress and Depression Symptoms among People Living with HIV/AIDS

The lives of individuals diagnosed with HIV and the subsequent illness, AIDS, were often chaotic because these individuals deal with the physical, emotional, and interpersonal sequelae of this illness. Depressive symptoms and stress were common and impact on functioning, quality of life, and health status, highlighting the importance of diagnosis and treatment of patients with HIV infection. Psychiatric clinical practice and rating scales have come to play an ever-increasing role both in determining specific symptoms and diagnosing an individual condition. Descriptive reports of psychiatric morbidity among those with HIV infection, that relied primarily on self-report rating scales, described high rates of symptomatic depression and stress.

This study aimed to determine the proportion of depression among people living with HIV/AIDS using the BDI-II and PSS to determine a relationship between symptoms of depression and stress with CD4 counts.

This study was a numerical correlative analytic study with a cross-sectional study approach that assessed the correlation between stress, depression and CD4 level in people with HIV/AIDS that were receiving ARV therapy in the Voluntary Counselling Test (VCT) Polyclinic of General Hospital Haji Medan by recruiting 46 subjects. CD4 level was examined in the Pramita Medan laboratory.

When analysis of BDI-II level and CD4 scores were done, a significant correlation was found (P < 0.05). The strength of the relationship between the BDI score and the CD4 score was 0.548 revealing a positive correlation with moderate correlation strength.

We have shown a significant relationship between depression, stress and CD4 level among people with HIV/AIDS in Medan, Indonesia. Psychological distress may affect the immunity in infected people, leading to the disease progressivity.