St Lawrence Js

Factors associated with severity of depression and high-risk sexual behavior among persons diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Whereas some people appear to cope after learning that they have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, others experience depression and suicidal ideation. In this study, 142 persons with HIV infection were administered the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). High levels of depression were predicted by lower perceived social support, attributions that health was influenced more by chance, high-risk sexual behavior practices, and greater number of HIV illness symptoms and greater duration of time knowing of ones own positive serostatus. Ongoing high-risk sexual behavior practices were predicted by higher levels of recreational drug use and of depression. These findings highlight the need for improved mental health services for persons with HIV conditions.

Medical Students' Attitudes toward AIDS and Homosexual Patients.

More than most diseases, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) appears to elicit highly negative, fearful, and prejudicial attitudes. In the study reported here, medical students read one of four patient vignettes. The vignettes were identical in content except that the patient was identified as having either AIDS or leukemia as either homosexual or heterosexual. The students then completed a set of objective measures that assessed their attitudes toward the patient portrayed in the vignette. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance of their responses revealed that the students held negative and prejudiced attitudes toward both the AIDS and homosexual patients. This finding suggests that medical educators should recognize that many students have stigmatizing, negative attitudes toward homosexuals and patients with AIDS. These educators should promote greater sensitivity, knowledge, and understanding among medical students of those at risk for AIDS and AIDS patients.

African-American adolescents' knowledge, health-related attitudes, sexual behavior, and contraceptive decisions: implications for the prevention of adolescent HIV infection.

Samples of adolescents in the US which suggest that HIV seroprevalence is climbing affirm the at-risk status of youths for HIV infection. Minority and disadvantaged youths are at even greater overall risk within the general national population of youths. Adolescent HIV infection probably accounts for thousands of current AIDS cases and 75000 adolescents are estimated to already be infected with HIV. Despite the fact that more than half of all adolescents in the US are sexually active. they accept condoms less than adults. Reported rates of sexual activity among minority adolescents are as high as 80% with African-American youths being disproportionately represented among AIDS and HIV cases diagnoses in youths. To gain some insight into this community 195 African-Americans of mean age 15.3 years and average grade in school 9.6 were recruited in the southeast US from a public health service-funded clinic community-based teen centers and after school programs and the waiting room of a family service agency to complete measures of knowledge reacted to AIDS attitudes toward condoms health locus of control vulnerability to HIV infection peer sexual norms personal sexual behavior over the previous 6 months and contraceptive preferences. 82% of the sample received Medicaid; 70% reported being sexually active and first intercourse occurred at the average ate of 11.7 years. Girls were found to be more knowledgeable about AIDS reported fewer sexual partners held more positive attitudes toward precautionary sexual behavior and perceived themselves to have greater self-control than boys. The following variables accounted for 44% of the variance in condom use: condom use from the first intercourse occasion earlier grade in school lower belief in an external locus of control and higher scores on the Effect on Sexual Experience and Self-Control subscales of the Condom Attitude Scale. Implications for the content format and timing of HIV prevention among these adolescents are discussed.

Stress management training in medical school.

It has been widely noted that medical school can be stressful experience for many students and that on completion of their medical education students will enter a profession high in potential stressors. However, very few systematic efforts to teach medical students practical stress management skills have been undertaken. In the study reported here, a group of students volunteered to participate in a six-session program that taught them personal stress management techniques, including self-relaxation training, schedule-planning, priority-setting, leisure time-planning, and cognitive modification techniques. From pretraining to posttraining, the students showed improvement on a variety of measures that included knowledge about stress, self-report inventory scores assessing stress symptoms and life-style, personal ratings of stressful situations, and their daily activity schedules. A control group largely failed to show improvement relative to the stress management training group largely failed to show improvement relative to the stress management training group subjects. The importance of making available to students such specific, behavioral and preventive stress management training is discussed.