News

Today, on December 1 - World AIDS Day - the discussion of the problem of mental health and psychological well-being of children and adolescents living with HIV is especially relevant.

Publications in the Collection of scientific articles “Children, Society and Future ”of the III Congress on Mental Health: Meeting the Needs of the XXI Century ”are devoted to this topic (http://www.mental-health-congress.ru/ru/page/thesis/.

Russian researchers (Barylnik Yu.B., Shuldyakov A.A., Bachilo E.V., Mamedov S.S., Razumovsky Saratov State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation) give data indicating that HIV damage to the central nervous system leads to a high risk of developing mental disorders among children and adolescents with HIV infection, including reactive (71.6%, of which 67.2% are neurotic) and personality (76.4 %) disorders, in most cases – the combined ones (87.2%). Psychological problems play a huge role in the clinical formation of mental disorders in HIV/AIDS. In the eyes of the closest social environment, an HIV-infected person is perceived as having a significant defect, as a kind of inferior member of society. The main social consequences are the destruction of social ties, rejection by friends, classmates, people of the opposite sex, possibly rejection in the family.