PSYCHIATRY: Treating Mental Illness in the HIV Patient

Dr Glenn Treisman

State why mental health care is often not available to patients with HIV infection; Explain how a few practitioners have given a bad name to psychiatry by promoting “alien-abduction psychiatry”; Discuss why it is important for psychiatry to redeem its tarnished reputation; Describe the 4 types of influences that may lead to mental disorders and to patients’ not seeking psychiatric care; and Explain the rationale for the premise that addiction is not a disease but rather a behavior disorder.