Psychological distress leading to repeat HIV testing in an Integrated Counseling & Testing Centre (ICTC) at Agra, India—Case report of 10 HIV-negative clients

BackgroundSeveral studies have reported stigma and impact of HIV status on people testing positive but the impact of psychological distress among HIV negative people has not been looked into. This is a report of 10 clients attending an ICTC at Agra who resorted to repeat counseling and testing, at regular intervals inspite of their HIV-negative status.Materials and methodsIn the present study, data were extracted from the record files of the ICTC at Agra over a period of 3 years, 2009 - 2011 and analysed for the repeat testing and counseling sessions among the HIV-negative clients. The levels of distress were assessed using GHQ-12 & K-10 questionnaires.ResultsIn our study, it was observed that guilt feeling combined with awareness and perceived risk of acquiring HIV infection led to psychological distress among these cases. The severity of distress as assessed by higher GHQ-12 & K-10 scores correlated with the number of counselling & testing sessions. which, in turn, were because of the re-assurance and re-confirmation of the results required by clients.ConclusionThere is a need to focus on HIV-negative repeat testers as a special risk group and the service providers like Counselors, Technicians as well as the Medical officer(s) need to be vigilant and exercise patience while dealing with such clients. This is the first report of HIV related psychological distress among HIV-negative clients in this region of the country.