The psychosocial effects of the people living with HIV/AIDS have been acknowledged in sociological literature with few or little empirical study to justify its consequences on the affected people in contrast to its biomedical effects. This paper acknowledges that the biomedical consequences of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is still essential, but focuses more on the psychosocial effects of PLWHA that aggravate their health conditions. Engel’s biopsychosocial model was utilized as analytical framework and a descriptive research design for the study. One hundred and fifty (N=150) respondents participated in the study in a chain-referral technique at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okoloibiri Bayelsa State using a structured questionnaire as instrument of data collection. Frequency and percentage distribution tables were used to present and analyzed the quantitative data collected for the study using SPSS version 17.0. Findings showed that there were psychosocial effects that aggravate the conditions of PLWHA ranging from depression and perhaps self-destruction arisen from stigmatization, discrimination, denial, loss of relationships and social disarticulation among others. The paper concluded that though the biological determinants of the transmission of the disease need to be emphasized and discouraged among people of the society through campaign and sensitization across board, but more emphasis and attention should be laid on efforts to embrace those already affected with HIV/AIDS by eradicating all forms of stigmatization, discrimination, deprivation through love and supports for them rather than disarticulating them from the members of the society.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Loneliness, Stigmatization, loss of relationships, social disarticulation and supports
