Karolynn Siegel, PhD

HIV-Infected Women Living in Two Time Periods : This National Institute of Mental Health funded study is a follow-up to an earlier NIMH supported investigation. In it, Dr. Siegel and her team are investigating how the experience of living with HIV infection has changed since the mid-90s in light of the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy that has significantly extended patient survival. To examine this issue, she is accruing a sample of women currently living with HIV who are matched on several key characteristics to a sample she studied between 1994 and 1996. The existence of her historical data set provides a rare opportunity to empirically document changes or continuities in the lived experience of being HIV infected.

HIV-Infected Injecting Drug Users Living with HCV Coinfection: With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy has come the opportunity for extended survival for many with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, as a consequence of living longer, many infected individuals are experiencing morbidity and mortality from co-morbid diseases and infections. As a result we anticipate in the next few years there is going to be growing emphasis on HIV as a co-morbid disease. Coinfection with HIV and hepatitis C is a prevalent in a very large segment of the HIV+ population, affecting approximately a third of all HIV-infected persons in the US. In this National Institute Of Drug Abuse-funded study, Dr. Siegel and her team are investigating the experience of living with HIV/HCV coinfection and how coinfection complicates or modifies the mastery of key illness-related adaptive tasks associated with living with HIV-infection.

Self-Care and Symptom Management at the End of Life: In this National Institute of Nursing research funded study, Dr. Siegel and her team are investigating symptom management among older cancer patients with advanced disease. In recent years there has been a great deal of attention focused on patient care at the end-of-life. Particular concern has been raised about whether symptoms, especially pain, are being adequately managed by professionals to avoid unnecessary suffering. In this study the kinds of self-care activities that terminally ill cancer patients and their informal caregivers engage in an effort to alleviate symptoms and suffering are being investigated. How these self-care activities complement or thwart professional efforts is another focus of this work.