Mental Health & HIV / Re: Has HIV given or increase your anxiety or depression? Or is it just life?
« Last post by leatherman on Today at 09:22:25 pm »I think its a fair call out for patients to ask about the long term effects of HIV and ARTs, when much of the medication being mass produced and distributed is fairly new or has a previous commercial agenda by big pharma."fairly new" isn't really a good description. These are medications based on prior meds or medications that are combinations of long standing meds, and all of these are based on 40 years worth of treatment science. Each generation of ARVs have become more effective, with fewer negative side effects, and better long term effectiveness.
Comparing ARVs with opioids is apples to oranges. Compare ARVs with insulin instead.
blindly saying you will be fine and live a healthy life and blindly trusting big pharmablindly trust? heck no. LOL.
I quit taking ARVS in 95 and 97 because the side effects for me were too terrible. but it was still a choice of dying by AIDS or dying from the side effects. However that said, I'm been taking a range of ARVs since AZT monotherapy back in 1992 and even though I suffered through lots of serious side effects and nearly dying from PCP pneumonia a couple of times, I'm 62 and pretty darned healthy. Knowing a lot of fellow long-term HIV survivors (30+ years), I can tell you there a lot of people in my same situation of good health after enduring a lot of meds up until now.
The point I'm trying to make is that plenty of people have lived 30+ years and are healthy having started on very ineffective early meds. Understanding how much better/improved the meds of today are, it's not irrational to predict that someone starting meds in 2024 will easily live 30+ years on these newer meds with fewer side effects and better health. This prediction is based on the historical reality of the improvement of HIV treatment.