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Abstract
An anonymous, unlinked study was conducted to detect antibodies to HIV-1 or HIV-2 infections in 1,160 consecutive, newly registered, adult psychiatric outpatients at a general hospital in South India to determine whether psychiatric patients presenting to general hospitals are a population at high risk for HIV infection and should be routinely screened. The seroprevalence of HIV infection (12/1160; 1.03%; 95% CI=0.4-1.6%) did not approximate rates expected of a high-risk group compared to the national (0.7%) or regional community (1.8%) prevalence. It did not differ significantly from HIV seroprevalence in non-psychiatric patients (233/35450; 0.7%; 95% CI=0.57-0.74%) who were systematically screened (relative risk=1.57; 95% CI=0.88-2.80) during the same period, but was greater than the seroprevalence in healthy blood donors (0.5%; p=0.02; relative risk=2.15 95% CI=1.17-3.95). Non-psychiatric patients were also more likely to be HIV infected than blood donors (p=0.02; relative risk=1.37; 95% CI=1.05-1.78). These findings have implications for HIV testing policies among psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients presenting to general hospitals in India.