{"doi":"10.17615/e0nw-py10","title":"Changes in HIV Outcomes Following Depression Care in a Resource-Limited Setting: Results from a Pilot Study in Bamenda, Cameroon","abstract":"BackgroundLittle is known about how improved depression care affects HIV-related outcomes in Africa. In a sample of depressed HIV patients in a low income, sub-Saharan country, we explored how implementing measurement-based antidepressant care (MBC) affected HIV outcomes over 4 months of antidepressant treatment.MethodsAs part of a project adapting MBC for use in Cameroon, we enrolled 41 depressed HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy in a pilot study in which a depression care manager (DCM) provided an outpatient HIV clinician with evidence-based decision support for antidepressant treatment. Acute depression management was provided for the first 12 weeks, with DCM contact every 2 weeks and HIV clinician appointments every 4 weeks. We measured HIV clinical and psychiatric outcomes at 4 months.ResultsParticipants were moderately depressed at baseline (mean Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ] score = 14.4, range 13.1, 15.6). All HIV clinical outcomes improved by four month follow-up: mean (range) CD4 count improved from 436 (2, 860) to 452 (132, 876), mean (range) log-viral load decreased from 4.02 (3.86, 4.17) to 3.15 (2.81, 3.49), the proportion with virologic suppression improved from 0% to 18%, mean (range) HIV symptoms decreased from 6.4 (5.5, 7.3) to 3.1 (2.5, 3.7), the proportion reporting good or excellent health improved from 18% to 70%, and the proportion reporting any missed ARV doses in the past month decreased from 73% to 55%. Concurrently, psychiatric measures improved. The mean (range) PHQ score decreased from 14.4 (13.1, 15.6) to 1.6 (0.8, 2.4) and 90% achieved depression remission, while mean maladaptive coping style scores decreased and mean adaptive coping scores and self-efficacy scores improved.ConclusionIn this pilot study of an evidence-based depression treatment intervention for HIV-infected patients in Cameroon, a number of HIV behavioral and non-behavioral health outcomes improved over 4 months of effective depression treatment. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that better depression care can lead to improved HIV outcomes.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2020,"id":141721,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.931,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":366445,"name":"Bradley N. Gaynes","orcid":"0000-0002-8283-5030","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":608164,"name":"Charles Kefie Arrey","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":592352,"name":"Julie O’Donnell","orcid":"0000-0002-3617-5836","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":285349,"name":"Alfred K. Njamnshi","orcid":"0000-0003-0052-1511","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":591787,"name":"Julius Atashili","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":591789,"name":"Peter M. Ndumbe","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":608165,"name":"Mbu Eyongetah Tabenyang","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":525176,"name":"Kathryn Whetten","orcid":"0000-0002-4841-7695","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":6027,"name":"Brian W. Pence","orcid":"0000-0001-7321-9538","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":594056,"name":"Rachel Whetten","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:17:27.861239Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}