Psychological and psychiatric investigations of HIV infection in Singapore.

A psychosocial study was carried out on 10 out of the 18 HIV positive persons who were under surveillance and receiving counselling at either Middle Road Hospital or the Communicable Disease Centre in February 1988. The results of the psychological testing and psychiatric findings are presented. All 10 were male: 9 of them were homosexual and 1 heterosexual. Only one had significant depressive symptoms at the time of study. All had fears about their infection being found out by others and of the stigma that this might bring to their families. Psychometric tests on memory function did not show any signs of visuo-verbal memory impairment but did reveal a possible indication of audio-verbal memory dysfunction.