Reduced Sexual Activity in HIV-Infected Homosexual Men

To the Editor. —  A letter in the November 18 issue of JAMA by Kaplan et al¹ discusses changes in sexual behavior in a cohort of 31 human immunodeficiency virus—seropositive homosexual men. All subjects were sexually active prior to the onset of lymphadenopathy syndrome, but 22.6% reported no sex partners after the development of lymphadenopathy syndrome and in the 6 months prior to the administration of a follow-up questionnaire. Self-report data that presumably explain the changes included "personal health concerns" as the primary factor.We are prospectively following up human immunodeficiency virus—seropositive Air Force personnel with structured psychiatric interviews and numerous standard questionnaires. In the first 95 patients randomly selected for evaluation (94.6% did not have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), 12.6% were diagnosed as having hypoactive sexual desire disorder and 5.4% as having major depressive disorder. When a comparison group was similarly evaluated, the prevalence of hypoactive sexual desire disorder