INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPIES FOR DEPRESSED HIV-POSITIVE PATIENTS

Objective: The authors present preliminary data from two treatment mod alities of a randomized clinical trial in which they compared 16-week interventions of interpersonal psychotherapy to supportive psychothera py. Method: HIV-positive patients who were not acutely medically ill a nd had scores of 15 or higher on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were randomly assigned to one of four treatment modalities. They were assessed by the Hamilton scale and Beck Depression Inventory at 8 and 16 weeks. Most subjects who underwent either interpersonal psychothera py (N=16) or supportive psychotherapy (N=16) were male, gay or bisexua l, white, and college educated. Results: Results of last-observation-c arried-forward and completer analyses showed that scores on the Hamilt on scale and Beck Depression Inventory decreased significantly for bot h treatments. Differential improvement for interpersonal psychotherapy appeared by midtreatment (week 8) and persisted at termination. Concl usions: This is the first controlled study of individual psychotherapi es for depressed HIV-positive patients. Results suggest that a specifi c antidepressant psychotherapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, has advan tages over a supportive therapy.