EMOTIONAL PERTURBATIONS IN HIV-INFECTION

Psychiatric and neurological symptoms have been the target of many stu dies, but the emotional and behavioral modifications in HIV infection remain quite unknown. Working on the emotional dimensions and the hete rogeneity of depressive mood, we were interested in evaluating the emo tional symptomatology in HIV infected patients. Fifteen HIV-positive a nd fifteen HIV-negative homosexual men paired by age and educational l evel were studied. They were seen by two trained psychologists who ass essed depression, anxiety and mood dimensions with the MADRS depressio n scale, Covi's anxiety scale, Depressive Mood scale, Abrams and Taylo r scale for Emotional Blunting and Retardation scale. HIV-positive sub jects had significantly higher scores of emotional blunting: anhedonia and hypoexpressiveness. Scores of depression, anxiety, irritability a nd hyperexpressiveness were not significantly different between both g roups. Hypoexpressiveness scores were correlated to the CDC stages of the disease. This means that the the emotional deficit seems to increa se with the course of the disease, and is present in the absence of de pression or anxiety. The question of the origin of this emotional blun ting can be raised: is it the result of an adaptative behavior and/or the action of the virus on the central nervous system? Further studies are needed to confirm these results and answer this question.