Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151:1479-1484
Copyright © 1994 by American Psychiatric Association
Psychological distress and natural killer cells in gay men with and without HIV infection
JA Sahs, R Goetz, M Reddy, JG Rabkin, JB Williams, R Kertzner and JM Gorman
HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute, NY.
OBJECTIVE: The variability of the decline in immune function among those
infected by HIV raises the possibility that psychological factors might
help to explain the differences. Since studies of other populations have
shown natural killer (NK) cells to be affected by psychiatric conditions,
the authors examined this relationship in the context of HIV infection,
expecting to find fewer NK cells to be associated with greater
psychological distress. METHOD: Forty-six HIV- negative and 74 HIV-positive
gay men who were participating in a longitudinal study had NK cells
enumerations performed (by staining for CD56) 36 months after entry into
the study. Comparisons were made between HIV-negative, HIV-positive
asymptomatic, and HIV-positive symptomatic men by using a variety of
clinician-rated and self-report measures of psychological function and
absolute NK cell number. RESULTS: HIV-negative men had more NK cells than
the groups of HIV- positive men. The groups' measures of psychological
distress did not differ in any clinically meaningful ways. In general, the
presence of DSM-III-R diagnoses and the measures of distress did not relate
to NK cell number. CONCLUSIONS: NK cell number is not related to measures
of psychological distress in these gay men with and without HIV infection.
