Faezipour, M., Ghanbaripanah, A., Seyedalinaghi, S., Hajiabdolbaghi, M., & Voltarelli, F. (2018). Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on reducing depression among people living with HIV/AIDS. Journal of International Translational Medicine, 6(3), 125-129. https://doi.org/10.11910/2227-6394.2018.06.03.04
Background: Depression is prevalent among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). Reducing depression is effective in improving health care and it slows down the progression of the infection. Objectives: We aimed to determine the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on reducing depression in HIV/AIDS patients.
Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed through pretest-posttest with the experimental and control groups. The study population consist of all HIV/AIDS patients who referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in 2016. Twenty four patients (16 men and 8 women) were selected by convenience sampling and assigned to the experimental and control groups. All the participants were evaluated in the first and last session by Bech Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Participants supposed to get at least 14 scores in the BDI-II and they must had mild depression. The experimental group received eight training sessions of ACT that each lasted 60 minutes. The control group received no intervention. In order to determine the effectiveness of ACT, the results of pretest and posttest were compared together. Data analyses were conducted by SPSS (version 21).
Results: According to the results, mean of depression scores was reduced in posttest in the experimental group. However, there was no significant difference in scores of the control group. The one way covariance analysis showed a significant difference in depression scores in the experimental group compared to the control group (P = 0.004).
Conclusions: The study indicated that acceptance and commitment therapy is an effective approach on reducing depression among PLHA.