title: Anxiety symptoms and disorders among adults living with HIV and AIDS: A critical review and integrative synthesis of the empirical literature.
abstract: There are over 35 million people worldwide infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and its progression to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS; WHO, 2014). With the advent of combined antiretroviral therapy (i.e., cART) in 1996, persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) now have much longer life expectancies. However, living with HIV remains challenging, as it is associated with a number of significant and recurrent (chronic) stressors including physical pain, side effects of cART, social stigma, and discrimination, among other social stressors. Presumably, as a result of these types of stressors, a disproportionately high number of PLWHA struggle with clinically-significant psychiatric symptoms and disorders. Although much scientific and clinical attention has focused on depressed mood and psychopathology among PLWHA, there has been comparably less focus on anxiety and its disorders. The paucity of work in this area is concerning from a public health perspective, as anxiety symptoms and disorders are the most common class of psychiatric disorders and often maintain a large negative impact on life functioning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX, 77204, United States. Electronic address: cpbrandt1@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brandt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX, 77204, United States; Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcomb Blvd. Houston, Texas, 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zvolensky
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX, 77204, United States.
authors.forename: Steven P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stony Brook University, 101 Nicolls Rd, Stony Brook, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Blvd, Coral Gables, FL, 33124, United States.
authors.forename: Steven A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Safren
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 1 Bowdoin Square, Suite 701, Boston Ma, 02114, United States.
authors.forename: Conall M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: O'Cleirigh
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D057545:Social Stigma; D012944:Social Support