MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN HIV AND AIDS PATIENTS LIVING IN PAKISTAN: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS

AIDS is still a burning issue in Pakistani culture, but it does not get much attention so does the mental health of PLHIVs and that is why there is no indigenous tool for the assessment of mental health problems. The present study aimed to explore mental health problems in HIV and AIDS Patients across four stages of the disease. The traditional method of scale development was adopted. The study took place in Lahore Pakistan; participants were recruited from an HIV treatment center. A list of 36 mental health problems was finalized and administered to 230 HIV-positive participants to establish the factorial structure of the scale. As a result of exploratory factor analysis, four factors (i) Anxiety, (ii) Paranoia, (iii) Elation, and (iv) Depression were identified and a scale consisted of 26 problems was finalized. The Cronbach Alpha for Mental Health Scale HIV/AIDS (α= .801) and GHQ-12 (α= .79) show strong internal consistency and concurrent validity of the scale. All four factors have a significant correlation. One week later test-retest reliability was r= 0.40** (*p < .01) that indicated the reliability of the scale. The scale is an indigenous disease-specific assessment tool that preliminary reflects on while living in Pakistan what kind of mental health problems are faced by PLHIVs across four stages of the disease. HIV= Human Immune Deficiency Virus, AIDS= Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, PLHIVs= People Living with HIV and AIDS, TG= Transgender, Gay= Men having sex with men. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Mental Health Problems, Pakistan