HIV

Could Emotional Counseling Benefit Outcomes in Patients with HIV?

A positive affect skills intervention was associated with improved mental health and viral load in individuals newly diagnosised with HIV, according to the results of a recent study.

The randomized controlled trial included 159 participants who had been diagnosed with HIV in the past 3 months. Eighty participants were randomly assigned to a 5-session Intervention for those Recently Informed of their Seropositive Status (IRISS), a positive affect skills intervention, and 79 participants were assigned to the control group. The intervention lasted 5 weeks, and researchers followed participants for 15 months after HIV diagnosis.
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The positive affect skills intervention involved the following:

  • Recognizing a positive event each day
  • Keeping a gratitude journal
  • Performing a 10-minute mindfulness breathing exercise

For past-day positive affect, the group difference in change from baseline over time was not statistically significant. However, secondary analyses showed that the intervention led to higher levels of past-day positive affect at 5, 10, and 15 months postdiagnosis compared with an attention control.

Antidepressant use was reported by about 17% of participants at baseline. At 15 months, the number of participants in the control taking antidepressants increased from 17% to 35%, while the number of participants taking antidepressants in the IRISS group remained at 17%.

In addition, 91% of participants in IRISS group had a suppressed viral load at 15 months compared with only 76% of participants in the control group.

“Contrary to findings for most health behavior interventions in which effects wane over the follow up period, effect sizes in IRISS seemed to increase over time for most outcomes,” the researchers wrote. “The results show that the intervention is acceptable, feasible, and may hold promise as an efficacious intervention for people in the initial stages of adjustment to a serious chronic illness.”

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

1) Moskowitz JT, Carrico AW, Duncan LG, et al. Randomized controlled trial of a positive affect intervention for people newly diagnosed with HIV [published March 23, 2017]. J Consult Clin Psychol. doi:10.1037/ccp0000188.

2) Paul M. Teaching happiness to men with HIV boosts their health [press release]. Chicago, IL: Northwestern Now; April 17, 2017. https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/april/happiness-men-hiv-better-health/.