As a larger numbers of people are tested for HIV and learn they are seropositive, and as persons with HIV infection live longer, there will be increased need for mental health services for people with--and people affected by--HIV disease. In addition to """"""""traditional"""""""" mental health services for disorders such as depression, anxiety, and to improve coping and adaption to chronic HIV illness, a significant proportion of persons with HIV disease experience health behavior disorders including nutritional and eating disorders, sleep disturbances, mobility restriction, and pain that may be amenable to behavioral medicine interventions. Other health behavior problems, including noncompliance with antiviral and prophylactic medical regimens or with treatment regimens for tuberculosis, also lend themselves to behavioral medicine intervention approaches. Core D will support clinical research on HIV mental health services/behavioral medicine applications by: (1) Development and maintenance of relationships with community health organizations and AIDS/HIV service programs to facilitate identification and recruitment of participants for research in this area, with a particular focus on ensuring the adequate representation of women and ethnic minorities in study protocols; (2) Use of determine the prevalence and severity of mental health needs in HIV-affected community samples, as well as mental health access and utilization data, and facilitate entry of these individuals to CAIR mental health research protocols; (3) Collection of data on the prevalence of health behavior disorders in HIV patient populations to facilitate the conduct of behavioral medicine and compliance intervention research conducted by CAIR investigators; and (4) Serving as a resource for centralized and multidisciplinary input needed to design and perform HIV mental health services research. The core will incorporate the effort of a multidisciplinary team of scientists experienced in HIV mental health research and in behavioral medicine interventions with applicability to HIV disease. The overall intent of the core is to stimulate and support new and expanded intervention research related to HIV mental health issues.
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