Re: Severe Mental Illness At ART Initiation Is Associated With Worse Retention In Care Among HIV-Infected Ugandan Adults By JM Nachega et al. (2013), TMIH 18, pp 53–57

Abstract

We thank Shailendra Kapoor for his commentary on our publication titled ‘Severe mental illness at antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation is associated with worse retention in HIV care among Ugandan adults’ (Nachega et al. 2013). The primary goal of that work was to investigate the association of severe mental illness (SMI) with retention in HIV care. The substantial amount of research findings that point to an association between efavirenz use and psychiatric symptoms (Kenedi & Goforth 2011), and the report by Kapoor compelled us to carry out additional analyses to determine whether efavirenz use had any effect on our previously observed association between severe mental illness (SMI) and retention in HIV care.