MH PROFESSIONALS SEEK UPDATE ON HIV PSYCHIATRY

Nearly 200 participants listen to Marshall Forstein, M.D., at the symposium “HIV Care for the Mental Health Clinician” at APA's 2006 Institute on Psychiatric Services last month in New York City. Forstein is chair of the Steering Committee on HIV Psychiatry of the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education.

APA's Office of HIV Psychiatry coordinated the session, which was supported by a training grant from the federal Center for Mental Health Services. It was designed to create a dialog for understanding, assessing, diagnosing, and treating the psychiatric illnesses that accompany AIDS and HIV disease. Attendees reviewed the spectrum of HIV-related neuropsychiatric, psychiatric, and somatic disorders; individual case histories; the serious risks associated with the use of crystal methamphetamine; and techniques for obtaining a patient's sexual history.