Clinical experience and research provide substantial evidence that HIV directly infects the brain soon after initial infection, which can result in organic disease expression such as central nervous system impairment, dementia, pain, and mood disorders. In response to these challenges, the APA established the Office of HIV Psychiatry, which is committed to ensuring quality mental health care for persons living with AIDS and HIV disease through the education and training of psychiatrists and other clinicians.
Training and Education
Whether you are a psychiatrist or another healthcare practitioner, APAs office of HIV Psychiatry offers clinical training programs presenting the most current, cutting-edge information on the management of psychiatric and neuropsychiatric dimensions of HIV disease. Training is tailored to your individual needs and clinical skill levels.
Video Presentations
Our video presentations provide psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners with an overview of some of the psychiatric disorders commonly found in patients with HIV and AIDS. Treating these comorbidities is critical to promoting antiretroviral medication adherence, assuring secondary prevention, and improving patients' quality of life.
Medical Student Elective in HIV Psychiatry
The Medical Student Elective in HIV Psychiatry was established in 2004 to provide an opportunity for fourth-year medical students to participate in a month-long clinical or research elective in HIV psychiatry at one of several prominent universities. This program was created to foster the participation of medical students (particularly racial and ethnic minorities) in HIV-related care and research and provide them with a means of obtaining essential HIV-related mental health training through an integrated approach to patient care.
Resources and Publications
APA provides and produces a number of resources and publications to complement our core programming. Included below are also a series of informative links offering additional expertise in the practice of AIDS and HIV psychiatry as well as resources from collaborative allied organizations and network members. We invite you explore other HIV/AIDS-related clinical and educational resources. This information can be of use to psychiatrists, allied health professionals, students, policymakers, and the general public.
Fact Sheets
- HIV and Clinical Depression
- HIV and Anxiety
- HIV and Cognitive Disorders
- HIV and Delirium
- HIV and Substance Use
- HIV and People With Severe Mental Illness (SMI)
- Sleep Disorders and HIV
- Pain in HIV/AIDS
Publications
Find related books and journals from APA Publishing.
Additional Web Materials
- The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine AIDS Psychiatry Special Interest Group
- AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service and HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Services
- Johns Hopkins Guide
- Center for Disease Control (Division of HIV Prevention)
- HRSA (HIV/AIDS Bureau)
- Clinical Care Options
- Center for AIDS Precention Studies (CAPS)
- Bastyr Univeristy AIDS Research Center
- HIV Insight
- Journal of the American Medical Association HIV/AIDS Information Center
- Medscape HIV/AIDS
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)
- National Institute on Mental Health Office of AIDS Research
- HIV Clinical Resource
- AIDS Education and training Centers