AIDS patient care and STDs
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AIDS Patient Care STDS · Feb 2002
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialA pilot study of the effects of cognitive-behavioral group therapy and peer support/counseling in decreasing psychologic distress and improving quality of life in Chinese patients with symptomatic HIV disease.
Forty-six Chinese patients with symptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) participated in a comparative study assessing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBT) and peer support/counseling group therapy (PSC) in relation to improving mood and quality of life and decreasing uncertainty in illness as compared to a group receiving routine treatment with no formal psychosocial intervention. The CBT group consisted of 10 subjects, the PSC group of 10 subjects, and the comparison group of 26 subjects. There was a 24% attrition rate. ⋯ In the PSC group a worsening of psychologic functioning was observed immediately postintervention, but this picture dramatically improved at the follow-up assessment with improvements of up to 34%. Quality of life also improved over time in this group by almost 5%, but results did not reach statistical significance. This study demonstrated that psychologic interventions could decrease psychologic distress and improve quality of life in symptomatic HIV patients, indicating their use should be incorporated in the management of care of people living with HIV/AIDS.