Publications by authors named "Andres Bedoya"

Background: COVID-19 and efforts to manage widespread infection may compromise HIV care engagement. The COVID-19-related factors linked to reduced HIV engagement have not been assessed among postpartum women with HIV, who are at heightened risk of attrition under non-pandemic circumstances. To mitigate the effects of the pandemic on care engagement and to prepare for future public health crises, it is critical to understand how COVID-19 has impacted (1) engagement in care and (2) factors that may act as barriers to care engagement.

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Background COVID-19 and efforts to manage widespread infection may compromise HIV care engagement. The COVID-19-related factors linked to reduced HIV engagement have not been assessed among postpartum women with HIV, who are at heightened risk of attrition under non-pandemic circumstances. To mitigate the effects of the pandemic on care engagement and to prepare for future public health crises, it is critical to understand how COVID-19 has impacted (1) engagement in care and (2) factors that may act as barriers to care engagement.

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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms may interfere with gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men's (MSM) ability to engage in safe sex practices. An indirect relationship with dissociation may help to elucidate the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and condomless sex among MSM with childhood sexual abuse (CSA) histories. These relationships have not previously been examined in this group, which has a unique vulnerability for HIV acquisition.

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Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) in India are extremely marginalised and stigmatised, and therefore experience immense psychosocial stress. As current HIV prevention interventions in India do not address mental health or resilience to these stressors, we aimed to evaluate a resilience-based psychosocial intervention in the context of HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention.

Methods: We did a multicity, randomised, clinical efficacy trial in Chennai (governmental tuberculosis research institute) and Mumbai (non-governmental organisation for MSM), India.

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Introduction: KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa (SA) has the highest prevalence of pregnant women living with HIV in the world. Pregnancy and the postpartum period offer opportunities to engage women in HIV care, to prevent perinatal transmission and to optimise maternal and infant well-being. However, research suggests that remaining engaged in HIV care during this time can be challenging.

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Background: Despite antiretroviral treatment (ART) being an efficacious treatment for HIV, essentially making it a chronic non-terminal illness, two related and frequent concerns for many people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) continue to be HIV-related stigma and life stress. These two variables are frequently associated with depression, substance use, and poorer functional health. Studies to date have not fully examined the degree to which these constructs may be associated within one model, which could reveal a more nuanced understanding of how HIV-related stigma and life stress affect functional health in PLWHA.

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To address childhood sexual abuse (CSA) related distress and HIV risk in men who have sex with men (MSM) using cognitive-behavioral therapy for trauma and self-care (CBT-TSC), which is a novel intervention integrating HIV risk reduction with modified cognitive and behavioral therapy strategies for post-traumatic stress. We compared CBT-TSC to HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT)-only in an initial 2-arm RCT in 43 HIV-negative MSM at with a history of CSA and HIV risk. Serodiscordant condomless anal/vaginal sex (CAS; CAS with HIV-postive or HIV unknown status partners) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Davidson Trauma Scale: total score and avoidance, intrusions, hyperarousal subscales) were outcomes immediately post-treatment, and at 6- and 9-month follow-up.

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Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) in India are a key group at risk for HIV acquisition and transmission. They are also an extremely marginalized and stigmatized population, facing immense psychosocial stressors including, but not limited to, stigma, homophobia, discrimination, criminalization, low self-esteem, low self-acceptance, distress, and, as a result, high rates of mental health problems. Although these multi-level psychosocial problems may put MSM at high risk for HIV acquisition and transmission, currently HIV prevention interventions in India do not address them.

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Background: This study examined whether a culturally focused psychiatric consultation program (CFP) for Latino Americans was equally effective in reducing depressive symptoms in English-speaking and Spanish-speaking patients.

Methods: The CFP utilizes the Engagement Interview Protocol (EIP), a semi-standardized protocol eliciting patient narratives about illness beliefs. The sample included 118 Latino American patients presenting with depressive symptoms.

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Sleep problems are prevalent in people living with HIV/AIDS; however, few studies examine how poor sleep affects mental health and quality of life longitudinally. A sample of people living with HIV/AIDS from a randomized trial ( = 240; mean age = 47.18; standard deviation = 8.

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Positive psychological constructs are associated with superior outcomes in cardiac patients, but there has been minimal study of positive psychology (PP) interventions in this population. Our objective was to describe the intervention development and pilot testing of an 8-week phone-based PP intervention for patients following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Initial intervention development and single-arm proof-of-concept trial, plus comparison of the PP intervention to a subsequently-recruited treatment as usual (TAU) cohort.

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Background: Depression is highly prevalent in people with HIV and has consistently been associated with poor antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. Integrating cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression with adherence counselling using the Life-Steps approach (CBT-AD) has an emerging evidence base. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of CBT-AD.

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Cognitive behavioral therapy for adherence and depression (CBT-AD) in HIV improves both adherence and depression outcomes relative to enhanced treatment as usual (ETAU). However, in persons with injection drug use (PWIDU) histories, adherence gains seen during treatment have not been maintained postintervention. Therefore, we examined whether heroin or cocaine use at study entry moderated acquisition or maintenance of adherence gains after CBT-AD.

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There are an estimated 1.1 million individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the United States. In addition to the various medical comorbidities of HIV infection, depression is one of the most frequently co-occurring psychiatric conditions among HIV-infected individuals.

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Background: Depression and anxiety are common in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Although depression clearly has been associated with mortality in this population, the relationship between anxiety and mortality is less clear. Accordingly, we performed a series of meta-analyses to (1) examine the relationship between anxiety and mortality in patients with established CAD and (2) determine if this relationship differs in patients with stable CAD compared to those who have just had an acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

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A central part of providing evidence-based practice is appropriate cultural competence to facilitate psychological assessment and intervention with diverse clients. At a minimum, cultural competence with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people involves adequate scientific and supervised practical training, with increasing depth and complexity across training levels. In order to further this goal, we offer 28 recommendations of minimum standards moving toward ideal training for LGBT-specific cultural competence.

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Background: Meteorin (METRN) is a recently described neutrophic factor with angiogenic properties. This is a nested case-control study in a longitudinal cohort study that describes the serum profile of METRN during different periods of gestation in healthy and preeclamptic pregnant women. Moreover, we explore the possible application of METRN as a biomarker.

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Although studies consistently report high rates of comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and HIV infection, development and testing of PTSD treatment interventions in HIV-infected adults is limited. As such, the purpose of this review was twofold. First, this review augments the three existing reviews of research for PTSD in HIV-infected adults conducted within the past 10 years.

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This work deals with the analysis of the electronic subsystem of a multiwavelength elastic scanning lidar. Several calibration tests are applied to the Cubatão scanning lidar placed at the industrial area of Cubatão in the State of São Paulo (Brazil), in order to improve the knowledge of its performing itself and to design protocols for correcting lidar signal for undesirable instrumental effects. In particular, the trigger delay is assessed by means of zero-bin and bin-shift tests for analog (AN) and photo-counting (PC) signals, respectively.

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Racial and ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in clinical psychiatric research, but the reasons are not fully understood and may vary widely between minority groups. We used the Z-test of independent proportions and binary logistic regression to examine the relationship between race, ethnicity or primary language and participation in screening as well as interest in further research participation among primary care patients being screened for a depression study. Minorities were less likely than non-Hispanic Whites to complete the initial screening survey.

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Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV-infected individuals is necessary to both individual and public health, and psychosocial problems have independently been associated with poor adherence. To date, studies have not systematically examined the effect of multiple, co-occurring psychosocial problems (i.e.

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Objectives: Approximately 32.7% of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the USA are now over the age of 50. Women comprise a significant percentage of the US HIV epidemic and the percentage of women diagnosed with HIV continues to grow; however, little is known about women's experiences living and coping with HIV over time.

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Objective: A culturally focused psychiatric (CFP) consultation service was implemented to increase engagement in mental health care and reduce depressive symptoms among adult Latino primary care patients. The aim of this study was to assess preliminary efficacy of the CFP consultation service to reduce depressive symptoms.

Methods: In a randomized controlled study, primary care clinics were randomly selected to provide either the two-session CFP intervention or enhanced usual care.

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