Overcoming Barriers to HIV Treatment Adherence: A Brief Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for HIV-Positive Adults on Antiretroviral Treatment

•Adherence to HIV treatment is critical in primary and secondary HIV prevention.•We developed a cognitive behavioral intervention to improve HIV treatment adherence.•We describe the theoretical underpinnings of the cognitive behavioral intervention.•We give a detailed description of the cognitive behavioral intervention’s structure.

Maximizing HIV treatment adherence is critical in efforts to optimize health outcomes and to prevent further HIV transmission. The Balance Project intervention uses cognitive behavioral approaches to improve antiretroviral medication adherence through promoting adaptive coping with medication side effect and distress related to HIV. This 5-session intervention has been documented to prevent nonadherence among persons living with HIV who experience high levels of distress associated with their antiretroviral medication side effects. We describe the theoretical underpinnings of the intervention, provide details of the training and session protocols with a case example, and discuss implications for future applications of the intervention in both research and clinical settings.