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Antidepressant Treatment and Adherence to Antiretroviral Medications Among Privately Insured Persons with HIV/AIDS

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Abstract

In order to examine relationships between depression treatments (antidepressant and/or psychotherapy utilization) and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), we conducted a retrospective analysis of medical and pharmacy insurance claims for privately insured persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) diagnosed with depression (n = 1,150). Participants were enrolled in 80 insurance plans from all 50 states. Adherence was suboptimal. Depression treatment initiators were significantly more likely to be adherent to ART than the untreated. We did not observe an association between psychotherapy utilization and ART adherence, yet given the limitations of the data (e.g., there is no information on types of psychological treatment and its targets), the lack of association should not be interpreted as lack of efficacy.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH076206 and/or R01 MH058984) with additional support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) through a cooperative agreement for the Center for Research and Education on Mental Health Therapeutics at Rutgers (U18HS016097), as part of AHRQ’s Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics Program. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of NIMH or AHRQ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Ayse Akincigil & Stephen Crystal

  2. Center for Health Services Research on Pharmacotherapy, Chronic Disease Management, and Outcomes, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 112 Paterson Street, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Ayse Akincigil, James T. Walkup, Michele J. Siegel, Cecilia Huang & Stephen Crystal

  3. Health Services, Policy & Practice Section, Department of Community Health, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Ira B. Wilson

  4. Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    James T. Walkup

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  1. Ayse Akincigil
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  2. Ira B. Wilson
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  3. James T. Walkup
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  4. Michele J. Siegel
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  5. Cecilia Huang
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  6. Stephen Crystal
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Correspondence to Ayse Akincigil.

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Akincigil, A., Wilson, I.B., Walkup, J.T. et al. Antidepressant Treatment and Adherence to Antiretroviral Medications Among Privately Insured Persons with HIV/AIDS. AIDS Behav 15, 1819–1828 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-011-9938-6

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