title: Adaptive demands along the HIV disease continuum.
abstract: Our knowledge of the problems or adaptive demands associated with HIV infection has largely been derived from clinical history taking and qualitative research of persons with AIDS. This study uses a behaviour-analytic approach to systematically describe and quantify the specific adaptive demands encountered by persons with HIV across the disease continuum. Ninety six HIV-infected gay men and 33 seronegative comparison group participants were interviewed in depth. Participants were divided into three groups representing the disease continuum: seronegative, HIV asymptomatic and HIV symptomatic groups. Responses to a Problem Checklist were statistically and content analysed. Distressing emotions, relationship difficulties and HIV-related symptoms were the three most frequently endorsed problems and were also the three most frequently reported problems of most concern. Overall there was a trend for instrumental difficulties to increase with disease progression, whereas emotional and existential problems did not vary as a function of HIV stage. The behaviour-analytic approach to the specification of problems related to HIV infection has implications for both clinical and research endeavours. The specification of problems provided a means for accurately identifying common problems to target and could, therefore, provide the basis for developing suitably matched interventions for use with HIV-infected persons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: K I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Pakenham
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Dadds
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Terry
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011287:Prejudice; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012934:Social Isolation; D014342:Truth Disclosure