Adolescent Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation versus Sexually Abused Adolescents.

We have discovered in our clinical review that sexually abused girls have significantly better therapeutic outcomes than girls who have been victims of sex trafficking. Thus, we compared the mental health records of 25 adolescent female victims of commercial sexual exploitation with a group of 25 girls with a history of sexual abuse matched for age. Exclusion criteria included IQ <70, organicity, and psychosis. Victims of sexual exploitation were more likely to be in foster care; to have arrests, suspensions from school, and a history of running away; to abuse drugs; to be more impaired in social and school activities; to be withdrawn and depressed; to manifest social and thought problems and aggressive and rule-breaking behaviors; and to have a diagnosis of mood or conduct disorder or both. The results of this study suggest that the psychopathology of girl victims of sexual exploitation is markedly different from that of sexually abused girls.

The effect of exercise training on disease progression, fitness, quality of life, and mental health in people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Exercise has been associated with improvements in adverse physiological and psychological effects of long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART) in people living with HIV (PLWH). AIM: To summarizes the findings on the effects of aerobic or resistance training alone or combined aerobic and resistance exercise training (CARET) on disease progression, fitness, physical functioning, mental health, and quality of life (QOL) in PLWH receiving ART. A systematic search of articles was performed in several databases, and 20 articles that met inclusion criteria were summarized. RELEVANCE FOR PATIENTS: Aerobic exercise was associated with improvements in aerobic capacity, QOL, and depressive symptoms, while resistance training improved strength. CARET was related to improved aerobic fitness, strength, physical functioning, QOL, and self-efficacy. At least one of the exercise interventions resulted in improvements in CD4+ cell count and HIV RNA viral load. Moreover, another study showed that HIV-specific biomarkers remained unchanged in the exercise intervention group, while they significantly worsened in the non-exercise group. In general, in spite of their well-known benefits, exercise programs have not been extensively utilized or widely recognized as viable therapeutic treatment options for this patient population. Knowing the possible health benefits of increasing physical activity level is important to better recommend exercise programs. However, the prescription must be done carefully and on an individual basis. Additional studies investigating the efficiency and effectiveness of different exercise training regimens for PLWH are needed.