[Depressive affect and surrogate markers in HIV infected patients]

The present study investigates whether there is a relationship between subjective well-being and the change of immune markers in HIV-infected subjects. Twenty-one HIV-infected persons completed questionnaires. Immune markers (CD4-percentage and CD4/CD8-ratio) were measured at the beginning of the study, after 8 months and after 15 months. In a hierarchical multiple regression model, baseline values of immune markers explained most of the variance of the immune markers, both after 8 and 15 months. After including several control variables in the model, depression values and the values on the symptom checklist explained an additional increment of variance of both immune markers after eight months. Therefore, data of the present study suggest that predominantly depressive feelings co-determine immune status in HIV-infected persons.