GROUP-PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR HIV-SEROPOSITIVE PATIENTS WITH MAJOR DEPRESSION

Patients were recruited from the UCLA AIDS Research Center who had previously been referred to psychiatry for participation in an open-label pilot program that treated patients with major depression with fluoxetine. They chose to participate in group therapy to get help in coping with their HIV-seropositive status, problems at home and work, dissolution of their support system, "accepting patienthood," and being placed on an experimental medical protocol. This closed, twenty-session, homogeneous (for patient characteristics), psychoeducational, supportive and cognitively oriented psychotherapy group was successful.