Biopsychosocial approach to the human immunodeficiency virus epidemic. A clinician's primer

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic has created a multidimensional crisis that is challenging the health care system. Individuals with or without risk behaviors have anxieties about acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and need support and counseling. Once symptoms of HIV infection develop, crisis intervention and support need to be integrated into ongoing medical care. A biopsychosocial approach enables persons with AIDS to develop strategies for coping, to improve adherence, and to prevent transmission and suicide. Persons with AIDS are confronted with severe illnesses, neuropsychiatric disorders, discrimination, and death. Each person deserves the best medical and psychologic care available and the services of other disciplines where indicated. Caregivers, anxious about contagion, are devastated by the complexity, severity, and multiplicity of the illnesses that comprise AIDS and the lack of adequate resources to combat the epidemic. AIDS is a paradigm of a medical illness that requires a biopsychosocial approach. Psychiatric sequelae complicate the HIV epidemic, affecting both the uninfected and infected. The psychiatric manifestations of the uninfected include anxiety, phobia, factitious disorder, delusions, and Munchausen's AIDS. Psychiatric disorders associated with HIV infection include organic mental disorders, substance abuse disorder, affective disorders, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders. The consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrist is in a unique position to clarify and treat the psychiatric complications and to provide leadership for multidisciplinary programs. The biopsychosocial approach enables persons with HIV infection, their loved ones, and caregivers to meet the challenges of the HIV epidemic with compassion, optimism, and dignity.