Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing
RESEARCHPsychosocial Well-Being and Quality of Life Among Women Newly Diagnosed With Genital Herpes
Section snippets
Study Design
This was a cross-sectional study of 101 individuals who had been diagnosed with genital HSV in the past 4 months. Each respondent was asked to provide demographic information and complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Recurrent Genital Herpes Quality of Life (RGHQOL) instrument at one point in time. No follow-up study was conducted.
Subjects and Procedure
In late 2006 and early 2007, e-mail invitations were sent from professional organizations to over 8,000 randomly selected physicians who were
Results
Thirty-four providers recruited one to three subjects each. Table 1 presents the sample characteristics of the subjects. More than two thirds were between the ages of 15 and 34 years old and the majority was White. Most (76%) diagnoses included a visual exam and/or culture, and 60.5% of women planned to use either daily suppressive or episodic therapy to treat their infection.
Anxiety and depression were common in this population with 33.8% defined as HADS cases on the depression subscale and
Discussion and Conclusions
The findings from this study suggested that despite an increased understanding about the frequency of occurrence of HSV-2 and the availability of treatment to limit symptoms and transmission, the impact of a genital herpes diagnosis for women with symptoms has not lessened. This study reinforces the results of a 1993 study of patients with recurrent genital HSV, in which 14% of the subjects were defined as HADS depression cases at the first visit following a genital herpes diagnosis and 60%
Limitations
The findings in this study should be interpreted in the context of several limitations. First, this was a cross-sectional, descriptive study using a convenience sample. The depression and anxiety noted in these participants could be related to other factors such as premorbid functioning (e.g., interpersonal distress before screening) (Rosenthal et al., 2006). In addition, frequency, painfulness, and duration (severity) of physical symptoms for each patient were not measured, which may influence
Conclusions
As a major source of primary care around the world, nurses are frequently the providers who diagnose genital HSV. This study indicates that despite substantial progress in our understanding of genital HSV epidemiology and transmission, a diagnosis of genital HSV through clinical symptoms continues to cause psychosocial morbidity and impact on quality of life. There is a lack of systematic evidence about how best to counsel and reduce psychological morbidity in women with genital herpes,
Acknowledgments
Funded by GlaxoSmithKline. The authors thank Mitch Herndon, American Social Health Association Scientific Advisory Committee, and Aimee Gallager.
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