Stress and AIDS among intravenous drug users: Psychosocial influences on risk behavior and immunity.
Item
-
Title
-
Stress and AIDS among intravenous drug users: Psychosocial influences on risk behavior and immunity.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9130302
-
identifier
-
9130302
-
Creator
-
Catan, Veronica.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Suzanne C. Ouellette Kobasa
-
Date
-
1991
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Psychobiology | Psychology, Social | Psychology, Personality
-
Abstract
-
This study considers the relationship of psychosocial factors with behavioral and biological processes in intravenous drug users (IVDU). It concerns links between stress, distress, and high risk behavior. The second section examines the association of stress and distress with immune cell measures and symptoms.;Data is from a larger ongoing study of risk factors (NIDA grant 03594; Don C. Des Jarlais, principal investigator). The sample consists of 160 patients in methadone treatment interviewed twice, about nine months apart. Forty five percent of the respondents were seropositive for the HIV virus at intake.;Multiple regression analysis was used with each of the risk behaviors as dependent measures and stress and distress as independent measures. Multiple regression was also done with symptoms and with change in immune cell count as the dependent measure.;Stress at time 1 was significantly associated with frequency of injecting drugs at time 1 (p {dollar}<{dollar}.000) and frequency of injecting cocaine at time 1 (p {dollar}<{dollar}.0002). Stress, race, cocaine injection, and age were significantly associated with unsafe sex at time 1. Distress was not associated with risk behavior. Stress at time 2 was not associated with injecting drugs at time 2. By time 2, frequency of injecting drugs had declined significantly (t = 4.54 p =.000 for any drugs; t = 2.01 p =.04 for cocaine).;Distress, but not stress, was significantly associated with symptoms at both time 1 and time 2 for the group as a whole and with change in CD 8 cell count at time 2 in both seropositive and seronegative subjects when these groups were analyzed separately. There were opposite signs for correlations of stress and distress with some immune cell change counts for seronegative and seropositive individuals, indicating a moderator effect for serostatus on correlations of stress and distress with immune cell change.;This study suggests the importance of psychosocial factors in risk behavior. AIDS among IVDUs in New York City is growing at triple the rate of gay men. Among gay men, their own efforts at behavior change has brought this about and intervention efforts aimed at IVDUs should be undertaken. Remedial action aimed at alleviating the underlying causes of stress and distress among intravenous drug users would go far toward remedying the drug problem itself.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
