Grief and HIV Medication Adherence: The Work of Transcending Loss

Persons newly diagnosed with HIV experience diagnosis as a traumatic loss. While experiencing the grief arising from this loss, they must initiate and sustain the process of managing a stigmatized and life-threatening disease that can be effectively controlled only by consistent high-level adherence to antiretroviral medication regimens. Many patients cannot meet this challenge. Experiences of patients who have met the challenge are explored in the context of grief theory in this secondary analysis of focus group data from 24 HIV-infected gay men with high levels of medication adherence. Participants described circuitous behavioral and emotional trajectories from diagnosis to attainment of successful adherence that included working through/coping with grief, accepting their HIV-infected status, transcending loss through development of self-compassion, embracing medication adherence, and social/psychic reintegration.