A Comparison of Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR) on stigma HIV/AIDS Patients In Imam Khomeini Hospital.

After 40 years of the pandemic of AIDS, stigma associated with this disease is a major challenge to achieving the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat and a main obstacle to physical, psychological and social health of these patients.

The present study was a descriptive-analytical study that was performed as an intervention in the period from May to January in 2020 on 54 HIV patients referred to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) center of Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex . The samples of the study mode were selected by available sampling and randomly divided in three groups of 18 people based on Compassion-Focused Therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy session and the control group. Each treatment was presented to two experimental groups for 10 sessions per week and the control group was placed on a waiting list. Patients'''' stigma was assessed by the “Berger scale stigma” in three stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. for data analysis, SPSS 23 software, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance, Bonferroni test and one-way analysis of variance) were used.

The results showed that both interventions based on Compassion-Focused Therapy and and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction were effective on the HIV/AIDS-associated stigma, as well as this effect was maintained until the follow-up stage. Changes in follow-up remained stable for three months after treatment.

This study supports that Compassion-Focused Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction can be effective in decreasing HIV/AIDS-associated stigma. These findings can be effective in planning preventive interventions to promote mental and social health of HIV patients.