Cognitive–behavioral stress management decreases dysphoric mood and herpes simplex virus-Type 2 antibody titers in symptomatic HIV-seropositive gay men.

Abstract

This study tested the effects of a 10-week group cognitive-behavioral stress management (CBSM) intervention on mood and immunologic parameters in HIV-seropositive gay men whose disease had progressed to a symptomatic stage. Men were randomized to either CBSM or a modified waiting-list control group. The CBSM intervention significantly decreased self-reported dysphoria, anxiety, and total distress. Individuals who practiced relaxation more consistently had significantly greater drops in dysphoria. The intervention also decreased herpes simplex virus-Type 2 (HSV-2) immunoglobulin G antibody titers. The control group showed no significant changes in either mood or antibody titers. Individual difference analyses revealed that decreases in dysphoria significantly predicted lower HSV-2 antibody titers by the end of the 10-week period. Neither group displayed changes in HSV-Type 1 antibody titers or in CD4+ or CD8+ cell numbers.

Cognitive–Behavioral Stress Management Interventions for Persons Living with HIV: A Review and Critique of the Literature

“…Depression-Ten (48%) of the reviewed studies measured changes in depressive symptoms as a core intervention outcome [26,27,32,33,35,38,40,[46][47][48][49]. Among studies that analyzed changes in depression, five studies found a significant impact of a stress management intervention on depressive symptoms [26,27,35,47,48].…”

“…Among studies that analyzed changes in depression, five studies found a significant impact of a stress management intervention on depressive symptoms [26,27,35,47,48]. Specifically, participants in the intervention noted fewer depressive symptoms than those in the control condition.…”

“…Anxiety-Anxiety was a second key domain measured in a subset of studies (33%) [23,26,29,30,35,47,48,50]. In two studies, HIV-infected MSM assigned to a stress management program reported lower anxiety levels at an immediate postassessment, compared to those in a waitlist control group [29,30,39].…”

“…In two studies, HIV-infected MSM assigned to a stress management program reported lower anxiety levels at an immediate postassessment, compared to those in a waitlist control group [29,30,39]. Two studies found a significant group by time interaction for anxiety levels; those in the stress management condition experienced a decrease in anxiety, with no change in anxiety levels among control group participants [47,48]. Additionally, three studies found that participants in the stress management intervention condition had decreased anxiety levels from the initial preintervention assessment to postassessment [23,39,47,50].…”

“…Global Psychological Functioning and Symptom Levels-Analysis of total mood disturbance and overall level of psychological symptoms were included in 12 (57%) of the studies reviewed [26,31,32,34,38,40,42,[46][47][48]51,52]. Seven studies found that the stress management intervention group had reduced total mood disturbance levels when compared to the control condition [32,39,40,42,43,48,51,52].…”