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Trauma-Informed HIV Prevention and Treatment

  • Behavioral-Bio-Medical Interface (JL Brown and RJ DiClemente, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

The high prevalence of trauma and its negative impact on health and health-promoting behaviors underscore the need for multi-level interventions to address trauma and its associated sequelae to improve physical and mental well-being in both HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected populations. Growing global awareness of the intersection of trauma and HIV has resulted in development and testing of interventions to address trauma in the context of HIV treatment and HIV prevention in the USA and globally. Despite increasing recognition of the widespread nature of trauma and the importance of trauma to HIV transmission around the globe, several gaps remain. Through a survey of the literature, we identified eight studies (published in the past 5 years) describing interventions to address the effects of trauma on HIV-related outcomes. In particular, this study focused on the levels of intervention, populations the interventions were designed to benefit, and types of trauma addressed in the interventions in the context of both HIV prevention and treatment. Remarkably absent from the HIV prevention, interventions reviewed were interventions designed to address violence experienced by men or transgender individuals, in the USA or globally. Given the pervasive nature of trauma experienced generally, but especially among individuals at heightened risk for HIV, future HIV prevention interventions universally should consider becoming trauma-informed. Widespread acknowledgement of the pervasive impact of gender-based violence on HIV outcomes among women has led to multiple calls for trauma-informed care (TIC) approaches to improve the effectiveness of HIV services for HIV-infected women. TIC approaches may be relevant for and should also be tested among men and all groups with high co-occurring epidemics of HIV and trauma (e.g., men who have sex with men (MSM), transgendered populations, injection drug users, sex workers), regardless of type of trauma experience.

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Acknowledgments

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or National Institute of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd., NE, Room 570, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Jessica M. Sales & Ashley L. Phillips

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Andrea Swartzendruber

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Correspondence to Jessica M. Sales.

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Conflict of Interest

Jessica M. Sales is supported in part by P30 DA02782 and through the Emory Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI050409).

Andrea Swartzendruber and Ashley L. Phillips declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Behavioral-Bio-Medical Interface

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Sales, J.M., Swartzendruber, A. & Phillips, A.L. Trauma-Informed HIV Prevention and Treatment. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep 13, 374–382 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-016-0337-5

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