LONGITUDINAL PSYCHIMMUNOLOGIC STUDY OF ARC PATIENTS

拟议研究的总体目标是：(1)了解 个人对心理、社会和身体压力的反应 患有获得性免疫缺陷综合症(AIDS)或艾滋病相关疾病 复杂(ARC)；以及(2)这些反应可能如何反过来影响后续 医疗状况/结果，并与免疫功能有关。 第一个目标将通过继续跟踪75个样本来实现 初步研究的艾滋病患者和150名ARC患者 透过这项续期申请的拨款，“A纵向 艾滋病患者的心理社会研究。《心理社会访谈》 为初步研究制定的协议和自我报告程序包将是 实施，将3、6和12个月的随访延长至18、24和30 一个月的随访。将添加与主题相关的问题 对新的治疗和检测的理解和态度(例如 HTLV-III)。 第二个目标是系统地关注心理免疫学。 100名ARC患者的新样本中的关系有待研究 前瞻性地，每6个月，在2-3年期间。心理社会 最初研究中的措施将减少到 与免疫学状态和/或进展有关的文献 其他免疫介导性疾病。免疫学，心理学，以及 医疗状态/结果变量将被合并到单个数据集。 这项研究的纵向视角将允许对这些 问题如下：(1)具体的心理社会变量与 免疫功能的具体方面，(2)某些心理社会因素 变量与ARC患者中艾滋病的发展有关， 以及这些变量是否与免疫指标有关，这些指标预测 随后的医疗状况/结果，(3)心理社会变量是否可能 歧视ARC人群，例如，有或没有ARC的人 有实验室体征的弧形症状，以及(4)是否 心理社会变量可以区分患有HTLV-III的受试者 抗体在没有病毒的无症状的“携带者”。

The overall objectives of the proposed research are (1) to understand how individuals respond to the psychological, social, and physical stresses of having the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), or AIDS-related complex (ARC); and (2) how these responses may, in turn, affect subsequent medical status/outcome and be related to immunologic functioning. The first aim will be accomplished by continuing to follow a sample of 75 persons with AIDS and 150 persons with ARC who were initially studied through the grant for which this is a renewal application, "A Longitudinal Psychosocial Study of AIDS Patients." The same psychosocial interview protocol and self-report package developed for the initial study will be administered, extending the 3, 6, and 12 month follow-ups to 18, 24, and 30 month follow-ups. Questions will be added relative to subjects' understanding of and attitudes toward new treatments and tests (e.g., for HTLV-III). The second aim is to focus systematically on psychoimmunologic relationships in a new sample of 100 persons with ARC, to be studied prospectively, every 6 months, over a 2-3 year period. Psychosocial measures from the initial study will be reduced to those found in the literature to be related to immunologic status and/or to progression of other immunologically-mediated diseases. Immunologic, psychosocial, and medical status/outcome variables will be combined into a single data set. The study's longitudinal perspective will allow the investigation of such questions as (1) how specific psychosocial variables may be related to specific aspects of immune function, (2) whether certain psychosocial variables are associated with the development of AIDS in persons with ARC, and whether these variables are related to immune measures that predict subsequent medical status/outcome, (3) whether psychosocial variables may discriminate sub-groups of persons with ARC, e.g., those with or without ARC symptoms in the presence of laboratory signs, and (4) whether psychosocial variables may differentiate subjects who have HTLV-III antibody in the absence of virus from asymptomatic "carriers."