Behavioral research on AIDS--protease inhibitors and the new millennium: comment on Kelly, Otto-Salaj, Sikkema, Pinkerton, and Bloom (1998).

Abstract

The use of combination antiretroviral therapy in conjunction with the clinical use of viral load measurements have contributed to the "resurrection" of thousands of individuals who were expected to be on a downward spiral with symptomatic HIV/AIDS. In this context, those living with HIV face a host of new challenges, such as adhering to complicated medication regimens, maintaining low levels of HIV risk behaviors, reassessing future goals, and considering return to work. These issues, and others, present behavioral health practitioners and researchers with an exciting agenda for research and intervention. In pursuing this agenda, it is vital that innovations in health psychology maintain pace and integrate seamlessly with rapidly developing medical advances in the field. In so doing, health psychology will maintain its critical role in combating the HIV epidemic in this new era of treatment.