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Psychological Effects of a Life Review Intervention for Persons With HIV Disease
Author(s) -
Vaughan Susan M.,
Kinnier Richard T.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of counseling and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.805
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1556-6676
pISSN - 0748-9633
DOI - 10.1002/j.1556-6676.1996.tb02321.x
Subject(s) - optimism , psychological intervention , clinical psychology , intervention (counseling) , coping (psychology) , anxiety , attrition , disease , psychology , distress , life review , population , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medicine , psychiatry , gerontology , alternative medicine , psychotherapist , family medicine , environmental health , dentistry , pathology
The purpose of this study was to evaluate a life review intervention for persons with HIV disease. Twenty‐seven adults with HIV disease (16 had been diagnosed with AIDS) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: a group life review intervention (n = 8), a traditional support group (n = 9), or a waiting list (n = 10). Using a pre‐post design, participants were compared on psychological measures of optimism, self‐esteem, purpose in life, coping ability, psychological distress, and death anxiety. Although analyses revealed no significant differences between the interventions, statistical trends and participants' written evaluations favored the life review intervention. Attrition was a significant problem. Discussion focuses on the special problems encountered in conducting psychological intervention research with an HIV‐positive population .