Depression Management Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Among HIV/AIDS Patients

Introduction: HIV/AIDS is a worldwide health problem that has claimed a total of 36.7 million lives due to the HIV virus. In Indonesia, there are 30,935 cases of HIV and 7,185 cases of AIDS. HIV/AIDS can affect a person’s mental and psychological health. For example, the most common psychological problem faced by HIV/AIDS patients is depression. Depression experienced by HIV/AIDS patients is caused by the burden of life and social stigma. To overcome the psychological problems experienced by PLHIV, it is necessary to provide psychotherapy such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing a person’s mindset through their experiences so that they can move on with their lives. Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of ACT on depression in PLHIV. Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental design with a one group pretest-posttest design. This study’s population consisted of all HIV/AIDS patients who were also depressed. The number of samples in this study is 33 PLWHA who had depression problems using a purposive sampling technique. The intervention given to treat depression in HIV/AIDS patients is ACT with 4 sessions, and the analysis of this study used a t-test. Results: The average depression score of respondents decreased from 38.73 before being given Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to 19.27 after being given ACT. Conclusion: There was a significant difference in the average depression score between before and after being given ACT (t= 63,162 and p=0.000).