Quick help query

[menthe_reglisse]

Does anyone happen to know an academic reference about the way that improvements in HIV treatment has transformed the imagined futures for people with HIV who can get the treatments? I want to make a general point that people can move from 'not really expecting to have a long-term future' to 'having a future'  because of medical changes, and HIV is

Comments

[slightlyfoxed]

Can't read the full text, and it might be a bit too science-y, but from the abstract:
'Seldom in the history of medicine has an entire generation of patients with an incurable, progressive, and ultimately fatal disease suddenly been offered the prospect of extended survival and even, perhaps, a "second life." ... The psychological issues to be studied include the process of restructuring lives and expectations in the event of clinical benefit or managing the distress associated with clinical failure.'

A 'Second Life' Agenda: Psychiatric Research Issues Raised by Protease Inhibitor Treatments for People With the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Judith G. Rabkin, PhD, MPH; Stephen Ferrando, MD
Archives of General Psychiatry 1997;54(11):1049-1053.

[menthe_reglisse]

That'll do nicely - thank you very much. In fact, science-y is great because I'm being told off for being too sociological.

*virtual pint* to be redeemed for actual tipple of your choice at next opportunity.

[lovingboth]

Ah good. My suggestion was going to be to give the Policy bit of THT a ring, because there'll be something on their shelves, but that looks great (if surprisingly close to the introduction of combination therapy) particularly in relation to the 'what happens if it stops working?' issue and the hope is taken away as in Flowers for Algenon.

[hfnuala]

Rather helpy and I apologise for that, but Cystic Fibrosis might be another good example - when I was young, kids with CF usually died before their teens and now the life expectancy is in the late 30s - which is a massive change.

[menthe_reglisse]

Thank you - that's such a good example that I already had it in and referenced (I happened to know the name of someone doing research into people ageing with CF, and it's a distinctive name, which always makes finding a reference easier). Great minds think alike, as they say.