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Coping with HIV/AIDS: Mental Health. (2011, August 3). // HIV InSite //. Retrieved August 14, 2012, from http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/insite?page=pb-daily-mental

Facts: 1.People with AIDS have a suicide risk up to 20 times that of the general population. 2.HIV/AIDS and some medications for treating HIV may affect your brain. When HIV itself infects the brain, it can cause a condition known as AIDS Dementia Complex (ADC). 3.Avoidance of the need for treatment of AIDS is an emotional effect of AIDS. 4.People with HIV sometimes experience cognitive problems related to the disease. According to the American Psychiatric Association, those with HIV or AIDS may experience dementia complex, delirium and psychosis. 5.Anger is another common and natural feeling related to being diagnosed with HIV. Many people are upset about how they got the virus or angry that they didn't know they had the virus. 6.HIV/AIDS is a significant cause of death and disability, especially in low- and middle-income countries 7.Prevalence rates in mentally ill inpatients and outpatients have been reported to be between 5% and 23%, compared with a range of 0.3% to 0.4% in the general population in the United States of America over comparable time periods. Some studies have reported behavioural risk factors for transmission of HIV in between 30% and 60% of people with severe mental illnesses 8.The Reference Group to the United Nations on HIV and Injecting Drug Use recently estimated that worldwide about three million injecting drug users might be infected with HIV 9.The use of alcohol is known to be associated with an increased risk of unsafe sexual behaviour. 10.The prevalence of mental illnesses in HIV-infected individuals is substantially higher than in the general population 11.Mental illnesses have been associated with lower likelihood of receiving antiretroviral medication 12.Patients often do not reveal their psychological state to health-care professionals for fear of being stigmatized further 13.Despite the fact that developing countries carry more than 90% of the burden of HIV/AIDS,little information about the interaction between HIV/AIDS and mental health is available from low-and middle-income countries 14.People who find out that they are HIV positive often deal with the news by denying that it is true. 15.normal to have an emotional reaction upon learning that you are infected with HIV