Hopelessness in i.v. drug users not in treatment and seeking HIV testing and counselling.

The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) was administered to 2379 intravenous drug users who were not in treatment, unaware of their human-immunodeficiency-virus (HIV) status and seeking HIV testing and counselling. Three BHS principal components were identified reflecting resignation to the futility of changing the future, rejection of the possibility of a hopeful future, and acceptance of the inevitability of a hopeless future. The principal component scores representing these three dimensions were positively related to self-reported depression and suicidal ideation; the rejection scores were positively correlated with confirmed HIV seropositivity.