Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:09:13.618Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Women and children living with HIV infection

Some psychological concerns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Diane Melvin*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Health Psychology, St Mary's Hospital London W2 1NY
Lorraine Sherr
Affiliation:
Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London
*
Correspondence
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

HIV infection is a relatively new disease affecting families (Pizzo & Wilfert, 1994). As with other chronic and life-threatening illnesses, families are faced with many changes and losses as well as much uncertainty about the future (Eiser, 1990). Unlike most other conditions, however, there can be extra stigma-related stresses, such as fear and secrecy, which can compound existing burdens of illness and coping (Richmond & Ross, 1995). As further knowledge of the full impact on HIV on families evolves, there is a need to consider the effects of multiple loss and changes on the mental health and adjustment of the children as well as their parents (Melvin & Sherr, 1995; Reidy, 1995).

Type
Women's Mental Health
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

Catalan, J. (1990) Psychiatric manifestations of HIV disease. Baillière's Clinical Gastroenterology, 4, 547562.Google Scholar
Dean, L. (1995) Psychosocial stressors in a panel of New York City gay men during the AIDS epidemic 1985–1991. In AIDS, Identity and Community (eds Herek, G. M. & Green, B.), pp. 201215. New York: Sage.Google Scholar
Draimin, B. (1993) Adolescents in families with AIDS: growing up with loss. In A Death in the Family – Orphans of the HIV Epidemic (ed. Levine, C.), pp. 1323. New York: United Hospital Fund.Google Scholar
Eiser, C. (1990) Chronic Childhood Disease. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Melvin, D. & Sherr, L. (1995) HIV infection in London children – psychosocial complexity and emotional burden. Child: Care, Health and Development, 21, 405412.Google Scholar
Moore, C. & Appleby, S. (1993) Caring for families in the community. Health Visitor, 66, 438440.Google Scholar
Perry, S., Jacobsberg, L. & Fishman, B. (1990) Suicidal ideation and HIV testing. Journal of the American Medical Association, 263, 679692.Google Scholar
Pizzo, P. & Wilfert, C. (1994) Pediatric AIDS. The Challenge of HIV Infection in Infants, Children and Adolescents (2nd edn). Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Pugh, K. (1995) Suicide in patients with HIV infection and AIDS. In Grief and AIDS (ed. Sherr, L.), pp. 3045. Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Reidy, M. (1995) AIDS and the death of a child. In Grief and AIDS (ed. Sherr, L.). Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Richmond, B. J. & Ross, M. W. (1995) Death of a partner – responses to AIDS related bereavement. In Grief and AIDS (ed. Sherr, L.), pp. 146161. Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Sherr, L. (1995) Suicide and AIDS: lessons from a case note audit in London. AIDS Care, 7, 109116.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.