Effects of future writing and optimism on health behaviors in HIV-infectedwomen

Optimists (people who have positive expectations about the future) have bee n shown to perform more health-promoting behaviors than pessimists. This st udy attempts to alter individuals' levels of optimism, and thereby their he alth behaviors, by having them write about a positive future. HIV-infected women (N = 40) on combination therapies were randomly assigned to write abo ut a positive future or assigned to a no-writing control group. Among parti cipants who were low in optimism, the writing intervention led to increased optimism, a trend toward increased self-reported adherence to medications, and decreased distress from medication side effects, compared to controls who did not write. Participants who were high in optimism showed the opposi te effects after writing about the future. Results suggest that a future-or iented writing intervention may be a promising technique to increase medica tion adherence and decrease symptom distress in pessimistic individuals.