Toward a comprehensive care of HIV patients: finding a strategy to detect depression in a Spanish HIV cohort

Brief transdiagnostic group intervention for people living with HIV and emotional disorders: feasibility and clinical utility

Emotional regulation-based transdiagnostic interventions provide positive but limited evidence regarding efficacy with people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In the present study, 10 participants living with HIV with emotional disorders completed a five-session transdiagnostic group intervention to improve their emotional regulation skills (Unified Protocol). Changes at pre-treatment, post-treatment and three-month follow-up were explored at the population (mean-rank) and the individual level (reliable change index). Compared to pre-treatment, participants improved significantly in anxiety, depression, negative affect and quality of life. Changes were maintained at the three-month follow-up. Emotion regulation, particularly the confusion factor, improved when comparing pre-treatment with the three-month follow-up. At the three-month follow-up, the percentage of normalized scores was the largest in maladjustment (70%), followed by depression, negative affect, and lack of control (50%). All participants indicated high treatment satisfaction and perceived benefits. These promising results suggest that brief emotion regulation interventions might be feasible and effective in the public health settings for people living with HIV suffering emotional disorders.

Physical activity, anxiety, depression, and adherence to antiretroviral therapy in people with HIV

BACKGROUND

Physical activity (PA) levels, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression, can affect adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) impacting people's health. This study aimed to evaluate the association between PA levels, clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression, and adherence to ART in people living with HIV (PLHIV).

METHOD

A cross-sectional study including 125 PLHIV was conducted. Adherence to ART was assessed using the Simplified Medication Adherence Questionnaire (SMAQ). For anxiety and depression, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was applied. The level of PA was assessed using the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). SPSS version 22.0 was used for statistical analysis.

RESULT

The prevalence of clinical levels of anxiety and depression symptoms was 53.6% and 37.6 %, respectively. Fifty-three percent presented clinical levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Sixty-one people (48.8%) had vigorous physical activity levels, 36 people (28.8%) had moderate PA levels and 28 people (22.4%) had low PA levels. According to the SMAQ, 34.5% of the patients were adherent to ART.

CONCLUSION

People who performed low PA levels had more risk to develop clinical levels of depression symptoms. Clinical level of anxiety, depression, and psychological distress (PD) symptoms was found to increase the risk of non-adherence to ART.

Objective memory as an indicator of functional impairment in native Spanish-speaking patients with HIV infection

Objective memory is one of the most affected cognitive areas in patients with HIV and perhaps one of the best predictors of daily functioning problems. Its relationship with biological markers, mood symptoms, and cognitive complaint is unclear and has received little attention in native Spanish-speakers. The goal of this study is to explore the relationships between the above-mentioned variables and their prediction of objective memory performance in native Spanish-speakers. HIV-related biological markers, mood symptoms, cognitive complaint, and objective memory were assessed in a sample native Spanish-speaking HIV patient with possible cognitive impairment. The results revealed deficit in short- and long-term memory while recognition was retained. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the combination of independent variables significantly predicted performance in recognition, indicating that the pattern of impairment in short- and long-term memory is related to a difficulty to learn new information discriminately. The non-prediction of short- and long-term memory performance may be related to the inability to estimate the deficit in objective memory. These results show the need to perform specific interventions in mnesic processes, in view of the relation between this cognitive process and patients' daily functioning.