AIM: People living with HIV (PLWH) have an increased risk for lifetime trauma and mental health difficulties. However, no studies have evaluated stress-related genes in relation to early-life adversity, lifetime trauma, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in PLWH. METHODS: Using bisulfite pyrosequencing, we evaluated DNA methylation (DNAm) in intron 7 of FKBP5, a glucocorticoid feedback regulator, and in the promoter of SLC6A4, the serotonin transporter gene, in whole blood of a random sample of 70 PLWH recruited from an HIV program, and 51 individuals 2 years later ( RESULTS: Higher DNAm at one site of SLC6A4 was associated with lower levels of anxiety (B = -0.62 (SE = 0.23), CONCLUSION: Our findings generate intriguing hypotheses linking mental health symptoms and DNA methylation, to be replicated with larger samples.