This study investigates the efficacy of Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) in the management of psychological distress among newly diagnosed people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. A pretest – posttest control group quasi experimental design with 2 x 2 factorial matrix was used for the study with Health Locus of Control (HLC) as a moderator. Purposive sampling technique was utilised to select three hospitals in Ibadan; and 40 newly diagnosed PLWHA were assigned to SFT (23) and the control (17) group. Data were analysed using analysis of covariance and bonferonni Pair-wise test at 0.05 level of significance. There was significant main effect of treatment on psychological distress of newly diagnosed PLWHA (F (2.33) = 4.11, ῆ2 = 0.15). The SFT was more effective in the management of psychological distress among the participants. There was also significant main effect of HLC on the psychological distress of newly diagnosed PLWHA. There was significant effect of interaction between treatment and health locus of control on psychological distress of people leaving with HIV/AIDS (F (2.31) = 10.391; ῆ2= 0.251). Similarly, there was no significant interaction effect of treatment and health locus of control on psychological distress; F (1,31) = .220, p>0.05, η2= 0.007. The study recommends that health care providers and policy makers should be sensitive to the fact that people who are infected with HIV do experience a variety of psychological distresses as well as increased depression, hopelessness, anxiety and fatigue.
Keywords: Health locus of control, People living with HIV/AIDS, Psychological Distress, Solution-focused therapy
