Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1987. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
A COMPARISON STUDY OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STATUS OF AIDS-ASSOCIATED KAPOSI'S SARCOMA PATIENTS, ACUTE LEUKEMIA PATIENTS, AND HEALTHY GAY AND HETEROSEXUAL MEN
Diss Abstr Int (Sci); 46(6):2084 1985. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE ICDB/87632187 Woods WJ; Ohio State University
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to learn more about the psychological status of people with life-threatening illnesses by assessing self-esteem, locus of control, depression, anxiety, and distress. Four groups of men, ages 25-50, participated in this study. Patients with acute leukemia (a non-contagious life-threatening illness), who were heterosexual men, composed the first group. Kaposi's sarcoma patients, who were gay men with acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS (a contagious life-threatening illness), made up the second group. To control for sexual orientation differences, two groups of healthy men were included in the study, gay and heterosexual. All four groups were comprised of ten subjects. The Tennessee self-concept scale was used to assess self-esteem, and the multidimensional health locus of control scale to assess locus of control. The brief symptom inventory was used to assess depression, anxiety and distress. Analysis of variance was employed to test the hypotheses that there were no significant differences among the four groups, or between the patients and non-patients, or the gay and heterosexual men on any of the psychological measures. The results of the analyses suggested that there were no differences on self-esteem and locus of control variables. There were significant differences on levels of distress among the four groups, and on levels of depression between gay men and heterosexual men. Overall, the means of both patient groups and the healthy gay men were higher than those of healthy heterosexual men for depression, anxiety, and distress, and these mean scores were in the clinical ranges of the instrument. These results are not what would be predicted from the literature. The most obvious reason for this is that the group of apparently healthy gay men were far more depressed, anxious, and distressed than would be expected for healthy controls. Nevertheless, the significant results show that levels of distress are significantly higher for patients, and significantly different among the four groups. That gay men are so noticeably more depressed than the heterosexual men was a surprising finding, and perhaps indicative of the overall affect of the AIDS epidemic on gay men.
Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/COMPLICATIONS/*PSYCHOLOGY Acute Disease Adult Anxiety Comparative Study Depression *Homosexuality Human Internal-External Control Leukemia/*PSYCHOLOGY Male Middle Age Sarcoma, Kaposi's/COMPLICATIONS/*PSYCHOLOGY Self Concept THESIS
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1987. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
