The overarching goal of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to identify the causal pathways that drive depressive symptoms among people with HIV (PWH). The scientific premise is that evidence-based depression treatment is an innovative, experimental probe to determine the neural substrates of depression and mechanistic relevance of microbiome-gut-brain (MGB) axis changes during and after Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adherence and Depression (CBT-AD) on brain and behavioral function.~The proposed causal pathway is that reductions in depressive symptoms following the delivery of CBT-AD treatment will trigger a cascade of alterations in the MGB axis. Specifically, CBT-AD related decreases in depressive symptoms will induce alterations in gut dysbiosis, decrease microbial translocation, and improve soluble neuroactive markers of peripheral immune dysregulation. Our efforts to elucidate the immunologic mechanisms whereby CBT-AD could improve neurobehavioral outcomes will also focus on an established leukocyte signaling pathway, the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA), which has been shown to be responsive to behavioral interventions and psychosocial factors outside of HIV.
The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to understand how a cognitive-behavioral treatment (a form of psychological treatment) for depression changes the gut microbiome (micro-organisms that regulate the health of the gut), immune system, and the brain functioning in people living with HIV.