Anticipated psychological impact of receiving medical feedback about HIV treatment outcomes

Two hundred and seven persons taking antiretroviral HIV medications rated a nticipated affective responses to two vignettes depicting different medical feedback situations. Participants were randomly assigned to a medical feed back vignette which varied between participants by (a) the direction of HIV viral load change (increase, decrease, no change) and (b) whether or not a medication change was recommended by the physician. The first experimental vignette was always followed by a second vignette depicting a viral load d ecrease (indicating treatment success in suppressing the virus). A mixed 3 (viral load change) x 2 (medication change) x 2 (within-subjects factor) fa ctorial design was used. Significant differences in anticipated affective r esponses to treatment outcome situations were found, suggesting feedback ab out success or failure of treatment regimens impacts psychosocial adjustmen t of persons living with HIV.