The relationship of psychological variables and disease progression among long-term HIV-infected men

This study investigated the contribution of psychological factors to diseas e progression among long-term HIV-1 infected gay men. Participants complete d self-report measures including coping strategies, life events, social sup port, personality and psychological morbidity and were followed clinically for up to 30 months. Cox proportional hazards survival analyses were carrie d out to CD4<200 x 10(6)/l and AIDS-related complex (ARC) or AIDS diagnosis controlling for viral load, antiretroviral drug use and CD4 count. Only ac ceptance coping was a significant predictor of time to ARC or AIDS diagnosi s: the risk of ARC or AIDS was almost 5 times greater for those scoring wit hin the lowest tertile compared with those scoring in the highest tertile ( HR=4.7, 95% CI 1.8-12.3).