Contribution of substance abuse and HIV infection to psychiatric distress in an inner-city African-American population.

We used Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL90-R) to investigate psychiatric symptom severity in African-American drug-abusing individuals. Three hundred and seventeen African-American volunteers (52 control subjects; 265 drug users) were recruited, 19.2% of whom were HIV-positive. The impact of drug of choice or HIV status on mental distress was assessed. Symptomatic HIV-positive participants were excluded. The intake SCL90-R, Addiction Severity Index, and demographic data were subjected to regression analyses. Drug-abusing African Americans reported increased global distress, a finding that remained robust after we adjusted for HIV status, gender, age, and education. Drug of choice had no influence on the severity of global mental distress in our sample. Asymptomatic HIV-positive African Americans who abused drugs reported more distress than the HIV-negative drug users. Levels of global distress were similar in the HIV-negative and the HIV-positive controls. Subscales of the SCL90-R showed more symptom severity among drug-using, compared with nonusing, African Americans. Except for paranoia, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive subscales, other symptom dimensions were significantly elevated in HIV-positive, compared with HIV-negative, drug abusers. When taken together, these findings suggest that drug abuse can exacerbate the severity of mental distress in HIV-positive patients. Treatment of these patients may be more successful if both sets of needs are addressed with matched interventions.