Introduction
AIDS, AIDS-related deaths, infections, psychiatric, depression, deaths, chronic disease
AIDS, INFECTIONS, DISORDERS, CHRONIC DISEASE
HIV/AIDS is a life-long chronic disease with many potentially debilitating symptoms that can reduce one’s quality of life [According to a report published by the United Nations’ programme on HIV/AIDS in 2020, HIV/AIDS remains a major public health concern around the world; As per the aforesaid report, 37.7 million people were living with HIV/AIDS,, 1.5 million people were newly infected with it, 680 000 people died from its related illnesses, and 27.5 million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy worldwide. According to the report people living with HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific were around 5.8 million, with 240,000 new HIV/AIDS infections, 130 000 AIDS-related deaths, and 3.7 million accessing treatment. According to the same report, in Pakistan, the number of adults and children living with HIV/AIDS were 200,000 with HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of around 0.2% in the age bracket of 15 to 29 years. and adult and child deaths due to AIDS were 8200, whereas, people living with HIV/AIDS who know their status were 45,000with 24,000 currently receiving ART [One of the major problems usually accompanying HIV/AIDS is major depression (MD); it is highly prevalent in HIV/AIDS infected patients and this psychiatric disorders could increase mortality this strata [Psychotherapy appears to be an effective treatment for adult depression [This study was aimed to see how brief CBT affects HIV patients’ psychological health and adherence to ART, because, usually, when people get to know about their HIV positive status, they feel shame. And as HIV/AIDS diagnosis is not considered in a supportive manner in Pakistani society and the families of the diagnosed patient change attitude towards the patient for the worse, so that’s why they face many problems [