Stress management beneficial in HIV therapy

A branch of psychotherapy known as cognitive behavioural stress management might improve the efficacy of anti-HIV drug therapy. Researchers from University of Miami, Florida, USA found that helping patients to ease their stress facilitates management of complex HIV regimens. It was found that beyond maintaining solid adherence to the medication regimen, reducing patients' distress levels had an impact on decreasing the HIV levels. The researchers compared the combination of cognitive behavioural stress management (CBSM) and medication adherence training (MAT) to MAT alone, in a number of HIV-positive men who have sex with men. The CBSM intervention consisted of 10 weekly sessions including relaxation training and the MAT approach comprised 3 educational sessions conducted by a pharmacist. Men who underwent CBSM had extensively reduced HIV levels in the 15 month long study, but comparison subjects displayed no change in the levels. By contrast, CBSM seemed to have no effect on the low levels of immune T cells seen with HIV infection. Men in CBSM reported significant reductions in depressed mood at the end of the session, whereas comparison subjects reported marginally significant increases in depressed mood. Improvements in depression scores were associated with declines in HIV levels, but medication adherence was unrelated to changes in HIV levels during the course of the study. The findings suggest that health psychologists working with pharmacists may provide a strong one-two punch in optimising both quality of life outcomes and the effectiveness of the medications.