REALISTIC ACCEPTANCE AS A PREDICTOR OF DECREASED SURVIVAL-TIME IN GAYMEN WITH AIDS

Although theoretical accounts of adaptation in the terminally ill sugg est that realistic acceptance of one's disease is adaptive, some inves tigations suggest that such responses are associated with increased mo rtality. This prospective psychobiological investigation involved 74 g ay men with AIDS. Six scores reflecting responses to disease were deri ved from a detailed psychosocial questionnaire. One pattern of respons es Realistic Acceptance, was a significant predictor of decreased surv ival time. Median estimated survival time for participants with low Re alistic Acceptance scores was 9 months greater than for participants w ith high Realistic Acceptance scores. This effect was not accounted fo r by time since diagnosis with AIDS, self-reported health status, numb er of CD4 T lymphocyte cells, psychological distress, age, education, initial diagnosing condition, use of AZT, smoking, or alcohol and drug use.