Nearly a third of people with HIV from five London clinics reported having had recent thoughts of suicide, according to a study published in the August 20 issue of AIDS.

Numerous studies have found that rates of depression and anxiety are higher in people living with HIV than their HIV-negative counterparts. To determine how frequently their HIV-positive patients experience suicidal thoughts and feelings (ideation), Lorraine Sherr, PhD, of the Royal Free and College Medical School in London, and her colleagues enrolled 778 HIV-positive patients from five London health clinics. Roughly half the patients were foreign-born, 67 percent identified as white and 65 percent were gay men.

Sherr and her colleagues asked the study volunteers to complete an extensive survey about their health and psychological well-being. Thirty-one percent of the volunteers reported suicidal ideation in the past seven days. Of those, about 5 percent said the suicidal thoughts were constant, and 11 percent said they were frequent. Heterosexual men were almost 50 percent more likely to report suicidal ideation than heterosexual women or gay men. There was also a trend among the foreign-born to report suicidal ideation more frequently.

The authors call the results “alarming,” and though they acknowledge that their clinic sample may not represent the general population of people with HIV, they argue that suicide prevention should be incorporated into routine care.