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Treating depression in HIV+ patients improves treatment adherence, viral outcome

A team of researchers led by a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) postdoctoral research fellow along with a Massachusetts Common Hospital physician report for the very first time that making use of antidepressant medication to treat depression amongst HIV-positive people not merely alleviates suffering from depression but improves adherence to HIV antiretroviral medication and virologic outcomes.
The study appears inside the December 2010 issue of the Archives of Common Psychiatry.
?¡ãThe study?¡¥s findings offer concrete evidence for why there really should be renewed attention to diagnosing and treating depression amongst folks living with HIV/AIDS,?¡À said lead author Alexander Tsai, a psychiatrist and Robert Wood Johnson Wellness and Society Scholar within the Center for Population and Development Studies at HSPH. ?¡ãOur study shows that therapy with antidepressant medication can enhance HIV antiretroviral therapy adherence and virologic outcomes.?¡À
The study, performed in San Francisco, involved 158 homeless and ?¡ãmarginally housed?¡À HIV-positive women and men, a population usually regarded as difficult to treat or study. A lot of had considerable psychosocial impairments like alcohol and illicit drug use, elements that typically result in exclusion from most antidepressant medication randomized trials.
The analysis was done amongst participants within the Investigation on Access to Care in the Homeless (REACH) study, observed between April 2002 and August 2007. The average follow-up time was 2.9 years. Throughout the follow-up period, 38 of the 158 participants died and 17 were ?¡ãlost?¡À to follow-up (moved away, unable to be contacted, etc.). ?¡ãDuring the course of the study, participants who had been treated with antidepressant medication increased self-reported antiretroviral adherence by 25% and had been twice as likely to accomplish total viral suppression,?¡À Tsai mentioned.
?¡ãThere is an urgent want for HIV care providers to recognize and treat depression amongst their patients or to refer their patients to mental health specialists for diagnosis and therapy when necessary,?¡À Tsai said.
Senior author of the study was David Bangsberg, a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physician specializing in HIV/AIDS investigation and director of the MGH Center for Global Wellness. The study was performed in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley.

 

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