Excessive concern about AIDS in two bisexual men

The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has become an increasingly common cause of severe morbidity and death among homosexual men. As such it has become a major source of concern to this group. In this paper I report the cases of two bisexual men who developed a severe illness characterized by fatigue, malaise and infirmity for which no physical etiology could be determined despite extensive and complete investigations. At psychiatric consultation it became apparent that each man had a mental disorder, one symptom of which was an excessive and groundless concern that he suffered from AIDS. These men both received appropriate psychiatric treatment consisting of psychotropic medication and short-term psychotherapy. This resulted in the remission of the mental disorder, resolution of the overconcern about AIDS and the return to good physical health. Also discussed is the connection between the symptom of overconcern about AIDS and the concept of hypochondriasis.