Pain and substance use among persons living with HIV: associations with co-morbid illness and viral suppression.

Authors

Marissa J Seamans, Catherine R Lesko, Daniel J Hindman, Jeanne C Keruly, Anthony T Fojo, Heidi E Hutton, Bryan Lau, Richard D Moore, Geetanjali Chander

Published in

HIV research & clinical practice. Volume 27. Issue 1. Pages 2720323. Dec 31, 2026. Epub Aug 19, 2026.

Abstract

Pain is common in persons with HIV, who often report mental health symptoms and substance use, all of which may affect viral suppression.
To investigate correlates of self-reported pain and associations with viral suppression among people with HIV.
We analysed data from 3422 self-interviews contributed by 1626 unique patients in continuity care in the Johns Hopkins HIV Clinical Cohort between October 2013 and December 2018. Self-reported pain was measured using the EuroQol-5D-3L ("Have you had any pain or discomfort today?"). The correlations included PTSD, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and substance use. Viral suppression (HIV RNA ≤ 200 copies/mL) is routinely collected for clinical care and was abstracted between 9 months prior to 1 week after the self-interview.
Pain was more prevalent in patients who were older, female, white, and who reported mental health symptoms or who had a recent or past prescription for an opioid. The prevalence ratio between pain and viral non-suppression was consistent with no association and also a weak positive association (1.07, 95% CI: 0.95, 1.21).
Tailored interventions for mental health may improve pain and HIV outcomes.

PMID:
42619246
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 20 Aug 2026.

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