Brief transdiagnostic group intervention for people living with HIV and emotional disorders: feasibility and clinical utility

ABSTRACT

Emotional regulation-based transdiagnostic interventions provide positive but limited evidence regarding efficacy with people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In the present study, 10 participants living with HIV with emotional disorders completed a five-session transdiagnostic group intervention to improve their emotional regulation skills (Unified Protocol). Changes at pre-treatment, post-treatment and three-month follow-up were explored at the population (mean-rank) and the individual level (reliable change index). Compared to pre-treatment, participants improved significantly in anxiety, depression, negative affect and quality of life. Changes were maintained at the three-month follow-up. Emotion regulation, particularly the confusion factor, improved when comparing pre-treatment with the three-month follow-up. At the three-month follow-up, the percentage of normalized scores was the largest in maladjustment (70%), followed by depression, negative affect, and lack of control (50%). All participants indicated high treatment satisfaction and perceived benefits. These promising results suggest that brief emotion regulation interventions might be feasible and effective in the public health settings for people living with HIV suffering emotional disorders.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional regulation
• unified protocol
• transdiagnostic
• emotional disorders
• HIV

Acknowledgements

We thank all the volunteers, all healthcare personnel who participated in the study and the doctoral student Alba Quilez.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Hospital Universitario La Paz (IdiPaz), Team S31_20 D Gobierno de Aragón, cofinanced by FEDER 2014-20 and, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.