This is a re-submission of a K23 award for Susan Meffert MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF. This career award proposal builds on Dr. Meffert's research with emotionally traumatized populations in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and proposes research and training goals to focus her work on HIV-infected (HIV+) women exposed to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) (HIV+GBV+). Despite knowledge that GBV has profound adverse effects on physical health (exceeding direct injury),1-4 and that GBV is highly prevalent among HIV+ women,5,6 little is known about how GBV affects HIV outcomes. In cross sectional analysis, GBV is associated with detectable viral load (VL) and decreased CD4 count.7 Mental health sequeale of GBV, including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression, are theorized mediators of the relationships between violence, HAART adherence and poor HIV outcomes.7,8 However, without a data-driven understanding of these relationships, we are unable to develop psychiatric treatments that effectively improve the overall health of the extraordinary numbers of HIV+ women exposed to GBV. The proposal addresses this crucial knowledge gap using a large longitudinal cohort study of HIV+ women and a pilot intervention with HIV+GBV+ women in a high burden region. Mentored by internationally recognized scientists, I propose three research aims:
Aim 1 is a longitudinal analysis of GBV, HIV outcomes and mental health mediators in the largest prospective cohort study of HIV- affected women (Women's Interagency HIV Study [WIHS]). My co-mentor, Ruth Greenblatt, MD, is the N. California PI for the WIHS study. Building on my work with the UCSF-Family AIDS Care Education and Services (FACES) program in a high HIV region of Kenya, Aim 2 is an adaptation of an established mental health treatment (Interpersonal Psychotherapy [IPT]) for depression and PTSD among HIV+GBV+ women at FACES.
Aim 3 is a pilot study assessing feasibility and acceptability of the adapted IPT. UCSF-FACES is a PEPFAR-funded care and research collaboration serving more than 90,000 HIV+ individuals in western Kenya. FACES has robust research infrastructure and I have an established, highly productive research team onsite. This proposal is significant because it will generate the first longitudinal analysis of GBV, HIV outcomes and mental disorders, and the first mental health intervention adapted and piloted for HIV+GBV+ women. These studies may substantially improve women's HIV programs by addressing a largely untapped mental health pathway affecting HIV outcomes among GBV+ women and developing/piloting a psychiatric treatment for HIV+GBV+ women.
These research aims are tightly integrated with my training goals: (1) Longitudinal analytic methods in HIV; (2) IPT adaptation and (3) Mental health intervention research. These studies will generate preliminary findings for an R01-funded intervention testing the efficacy of adapted IPT for the effects of GBV on psychiatric and HIV outcomes.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed research is relevant to public health because it addresses the intersection of HIV, the leading cause of death for reproductive age women, worldwide, and mental illness, the leading cause of chronic disease burden for reproductive age women in LMICs. These aims will produce the first longitudinal analysis of the relationship between GBV and HIV outcomes, as well as the first adaptation and pilot of an acceptable and feasible mental health intervention for HIV+GBV+ women in sub-Saharan Africa. The project is relevant to the missions of the NIMH and the Division of AIDS Research (DAR) because it proposes a novel psychiatric intervention to remediate the mental health and ARV adherence difficulties of HIV+ women affected by GBV in a resource-poor setting.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
Project #
5K23MH098767-04
Application #
9276133
Study Section
Behavioral and Social Consequences of HIV/AIDS Study Section (BSCH)
Program Officer
Senn, Theresa Elaine
Project Start
2014-06-09
Project End
2018-05-31
Budget Start
2017-06-01
Budget End
2018-05-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
$245,527
Indirect Cost
$16,954
Name
University of California San Francisco
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
094878337
City
San Francisco
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94118
Onu, Chinwe C; Dworkin, Shari L; Ongeri, Linnet G et al. (2017) Brief Report: Sexual Violence Against HIV-Positive Women in the Nyanza Region of Kenya: Is Condom Negotiation an Instigator? J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 74:52-55
Onu, Chinwe; Ongeri, Linnet; Bukusi, Elizabeth et al. (2016) Interpersonal psychotherapy for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder among HIV-positive women in Kisumu, Kenya: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials 17:64
Meffert, Susan M; Neylan, Thomas C; Chambers, David A et al. (2016) Novel implementation research designs for scaling up global mental health care: overcoming translational challenges to address the world's leading cause of disability. Int J Ment Health Syst 10:19
Zunner, Brian; Dworkin, Shari L; Neylan, Thomas C et al. (2015) HIV, violence and women: unmet mental health care needs. J Affect Disord 174:619-26
Meffert, Susan M; McCulloch, Charles E; Neylan, Thomas C et al. (2015) Increase of perceived frequency of neighborhood domestic violence is associated with increase of women's depression symptoms in a nationally representative longitudinal study in South Africa. Soc Sci Med 131:89-97
Meffert, Susan M; Musalo, Karen; Abdo, Akram Osman et al. (2010) Feelings of betrayal by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and emotionally distressed Sudanese refugees in Cairo. Med Confl Surviv 26:160-72
Meffert, Susan M; Marmar, Charles R (2009) Darfur refugees in Cairo: mental health and interpersonal conflict in the aftermath of genocide. J Interpers Violence 24:1835-48