Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and EMG Biofeedback
as an adjunctive treatment method for asymptomatic AIDS patients
MESSINIS L, ANTONIADIS G, SPIROPOULOY PB

The need for responsive health care targeted to the specific problems of persons infected with HIV is urgent and rapidly growing. Herein, it would appear that the present available biomedical treatments are not sufficient to stem this tide. Adjunctive Biopsychosocial treatment interventions to the presently available biomedical treatments have therefore become a necessity when treating asymptomatic and early symptomatic HIVseropositive persons. During the asymptomatic and early symptomatic stages of HIV Infection which can last up to 10 years, HIV infected individuals are still capable of transmitting the virus. Even though the infected individuals are asymptomatic and seem relatively healthy, several immune parameters are already suppressed. The suppressed immunological functioning found in very early stage HIV-infected individuals suggests that interventions specifically designed to enhance immune competence at early stages of infection may provide a means of increasing resistance to opportunistic infections. At these initial stages, the apparent sluggishness of immunological functioning renders the immune system most amenable to interventions that enhance effector functions and communication between CD4 positive cells, macrophages, Natural Killer (NK) and B cells via increases in lymphokine production. In this study, asymptomatic and early symptomatic HIV seropositives received a combined six-week intervention treatment consisting of cognitive-behavioral therapy and EMG-biofeedback-assisted relaxation training Statistical analysis of the data revealed that the treatment group had a significant increase in baseline to post-test total lymphocyte count (p<0.05). Participants who' recorded lower depression and tension anxiety at baseline and postiniiervention phases had higher CD4 T lymphocyte counts and therefore increased resistance to HIV-related infections. Findings further revealed significant baseline to posttest relaxation effects due to the EMG-feedback-assisted relaxation training, as well as clinically significant increases in the CD4 T-lymphocyte counds of participants when experienced this relaxation effect.

Key words: HIV, AIDS, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, EMG Biofeedback, Psychoneuroimmunology.