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Reductions in depressed mood and denial coping during cognitive behavioral stress management with hiv-positive gay men treated with haart

  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background: Stress management interventions for HIV-positive persons have been designed to enhance coping skills and encourage health-promoting behaviors with the hope of decreasing distress and slowing disease progression.Purpose: We examined the efficacy of a cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) intervention in combination with medication adherence training (MAT) in 130 gay and bisexual men living with HIV infection.Methods: Participants were randomized to either a 10-week CBSM+MAT intervention (n = 76) or a MAT-only condition (n = 54). Measures of self-reported adherence, active cognitive coping (i.e., acceptance and positive reinterpretation), avoidant coping (i.e., denial and behavioral disengagement), and depressed mood were examined over the 10-week intervention period.Results: Men in CBSM+MAT reported reductions in depressed mood and denial coping during the 10-week intervention period, but no changes in active cognitive coping or self-reported adherence were observed. Using path analysis, greater reliance on denial coping at baseline was associated with decreased depressed mood at 10 weeks. We also determined that CBSM+MAT may decrease depressed mood by reducing reliance on denial coping over the 10-week intervention period.Conclusions: Although denial may be an effective means of distress reduction in the short term, reliance on this coping strategy may result in a decreased capacity to effectively manage a variety of disease-related stressors in the long term. CBSM+MAT addresses this potentially detrimental pattern by teaching stress reduction skills that may decrease depressed mood via reduced reliance on denial coping.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, USA

    Adam W. Carrico M.S., Ron E. Durán Ph.D., Gail Ironson M.D., Ph.D., Frank Penedo Ph.D., Mary Ann Fletcher Ph.D. & Nancy Klimas M.D.

  2. Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Miami, USA

    Michael H. Antoni Ph.D.

  3. Departments of Psychology, Psychiatry, Medicine University of Miami, USA

    Neil Schneiderman Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Adam W. Carrico M.S.
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  2. Michael H. Antoni Ph.D.
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  3. Ron E. Durán Ph.D.
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  6. Mary Ann Fletcher Ph.D.
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  7. Nancy Klimas M.D.
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  8. Neil Schneiderman Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Michael H. Antoni Ph.D..

Additional information

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants P01 MH49548 and T32 MH18917.

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Carrico, A.W., Antoni, M.H., Durán, R.E. et al. Reductions in depressed mood and denial coping during cognitive behavioral stress management with hiv-positive gay men treated with haart. ann. behav. med. 31, 155–164 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3102_7

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