Abstract: Objective To understand the depressive status of patients with HIV/AIDS and their family members in order to provide objective information for conducting psychological interventions among them. Method The Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) questionnaires were used for assessing the depressive status and the SPSS software was applied for data analysis. Results The SDS values among the patients with HIV/AIDS and the family members of died AIDS patients were significantly higher than those of healthy controls. The proportion of HIV/AIDS patients with medium to severe degree of depression was 15.5%, which was higher than that of healthy controls. The SDS values among female family members of HIV/AIDS patients were higher than those in male ones. Conclusion The depression is a negative psychological status usually occurred among the patients with HIV/AIDS and their family members, and the psychological interventions should be conducted based on the characteristics of different populations.

Key words: HIV infections, Mood disorders, Questionnaires