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HIV/AIDS and Sexuality

Edited by Michael W. Ross

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This book brings together the latest knowledge and research concerning the relationship between HIV and AIDS and sexual functioning. HIV/AIDS and Sexuality explores the experiences of being HIV infected and the impact of infection on an individual's sexuality. It describes differences that may be associated with individuals who are infected or concerned about infection, and it provides new in-depth analyses of the effect of HIV on sexuality and sexual risks. The book provide clinical perspectives on sexual problems associated with HIV infection as well as some treatment approaches.

ittle attention has been given to dispositional variables in relapse into unsafe sex. In two previous papers, we showed (1) that recurrent adult depression in the gay/bisexual men in our sample is often associated with high gender nonconformity, especially core gender dysphoria, in childhood, (2) that coping strategies and personality scores are associated with changes from 1979 to 1989 in unsafe sex -- defined as receiving semen rectally without a condom (RSR), and (3) that sexual identity conflicts are related to a general style of escape-avoidant coping, (4) which is in turn associated with the MMPI profiles previously shown to correlate with unsafe sex. Here we break down these analyses to see if these patterns are related to HIV status.

We studied over 500 gay/bisexual men who contributed SCID interviews, Freund Feminine Gender Identity scale scores, MMPI-2 profiles, Ways of Coping (Revised) scores, Profile of Mood State (POMS) scores, and sex histories (ns varied by analysis).

Concerning the relationship between FGI and depression (1), we found that the correlations persisted in the HIV positive subsample, but vanished to insignificance among the HIV negative controls. A similar pattern emerged in the correlations pertaining to MMPI scores and unsafe sex (2), as well as in the association between escape-avoidant coping and sexual identity conflict (3). The analyses correlating the MMPI scores with escape-avoidant coping were, in contrast, equally strongly associated when broken down by HIV status.

A series of sample selection biases could account for these results. It would be more parsimonious, however, to hypothesize a deeper rationale. We suggest more investigation of the possibility that psychological and sexological variables may have more intriguing effects on sexual behaviors or the dispositional factors (perhaps even immunologic ones) leading to HIV exposure than has been recognized to date.

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Table of Contents

0.	Preface	7.	Stages of Sexual Behavior Change to Reduce the Risk of HIV/AIDS: The Chicago MACS/CCS Cohort By S. Maurice Adib and David G. Ostrow
1.	The Little Deaths: Perceptions of HIV, Sexuality and Quality of Life in Gay Men By Michael W. Ross and Lorna Ryan
2.	Calendars on the Wall: The Influence of Sexuality on Provider/Client Communication About HIV/AIDS By Nancy L. Roth	8.	Associations Among Coping Style, Personality, Unsafe Sexual Behavior, Depression, Conflict over Sexual Orientation, and Gender Nonconformity: HIV Status as a Modulating Variable By James D. Weinrich, J. Hampton Atkinson, Thomas L. Patterson, J. Allen McCutchan, John C. Gonsiorek, Igor Grant, and The HNRC Group
3.	Sexual Attitudinal Conflict and Sexual Behavior Changes Among Homosexual HIV-Positive Men By Lena Nilsson Schonnesson and Ulrich Clement
4.	Sexual Aspects of Adaptation to HIV/AIDS By Susan Schaefer, Eli Coleman, and Anne-Marie Moore	9.	HIV as a Catalysts for Positive Gay Men's Desire for Clarification, Enhancement and Promotion of Intimacy in Significant Relationships By Leslie Cannold, Bill O'Loughlin, Geoff Woolcock, Brian Hickman
5.	Sexual Dysfunction in HIV-Seropositive Women Without AIDS By George R. Brown, Sarah Kendall, and Rebecca Ledsky
6.	Sexual Risk Behavior Among Women with Injected Drug Use Histories By Anke A. Ehrhardt, Christiana Nostlinger, Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, Theresa M. Exner, Rhoda S. Gruen, Sandra L. Yingling, Jack M. Gorman, Wafaa El-Sadr, and Stephen J. Sorrell	10.	Issues of Isolation and Intimacy for the HIV Infected, Sexually Addicted Gay Male in Group Psychotherapy By Michele M. Fontaine
		11.	Index

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Copyright ©1997 James D. Weinrich.

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