Predictors of anxiety and depression among newly diagnosed people living with HIV: A longitudinal study

Abstract

This longitudinal study examined whether past resilience and internalized stigma predicted anxiety and depression among newly diagnosed Spanish‐speaking people living with HIV (PLWH). We also analyzed whether coping strategies mediated this relationship. Data were collected at two time points from 119 PLWH. Approximately a third of participants had scores indicative of anxiety symptoms, the same result was found for depressive symptoms. Structural equations modeling revealed that 61% of the variance of anxiety and 48% of the variance of depression 8 months after diagnosis was explained by the proposed model, which yielded a good fit to data. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were significantly and negatively predicted by positive thinking, thinking avoidance, and past resilience, and positively predicted by self‐blame. Additionally, anxiety was positively predicted by internalized stigma. Past resilience negatively predicted internalized stigma, self‐blame, and thinking avoidance and it positively predicted positive thinking. Internalized stigma positively predicted self‐blame. Moreover, internalized stigma had a significant indirect effect on anxiety symptoms through self‐blame, and past resilience had significant indirect effects on anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms through internalized stigma and coping. The results point to the need for clinicians and policy makers to conduct systematic assessments and implement interventions to reduce internalized stigma and train people living with HIV to identify and use certain coping behaviors.

The Mediating Role of Internalized Stigma and Shame on the Relationship between COVID-19 Related Discrimination and Mental Health Outcomes among Back-to-School Students in Wuhan

“…Meanwhile, our findings suggested that shame could directly influence the internalized stigma, thus, affecting negative mental health outcomes through their chain mediating path. This was in line with previous studies linking shame and internalized stigma to increased risks for negative mental health outcomes [20,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] in the context of HIV, obesity, schizophrenia, and marginalized groups. Multiple mediating analyses further revealed the underlying mechanisms and explained why discrimination could increase negative mental health outcomes.…”

Global Systematic Review of Common Mental Health Disorders in Adults Living with HIV

“…Anxiety disorders, particularly generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), are also commonly comorbid conditions in PLWH, with 25–33% experiencing clinically significant anxiety [ 47 , 57 , 63 ]. Internalized stigma has a significant indirect effect on anxiety through self-blame [ 49 ]. GAD is associated with condomless sex, HIV stigma, poor ART adherence, and reduced sustained viral suppression [ 63 ].…”

Psychiatric symptoms mediate the effect of resilience on health‐related quality of life in patients with breast cancer: Longitudinal examination

“…A longitudinal epidemiological study of twin samples suggested that resilience prevented the development of major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder after 1 year 17 . Also, in a longitudinal study conducted on HIV‐infected patients, resilience was a predictor of depression and anxiety 8 months after diagnosis 18 . These studies provided preliminary evidence that resilience prevents the occurrence of psychiatric symptoms.…”