[Hiv patients in a psychiatric outpatient clinic]

Abstract

The most often reported psychiatric complications among HIV-infected outpatients include: mood and anxiety disorders, and alcohol or nonopiate drug abuse. Medical records of 32 HIV-infected psychiatric outpatients in the Netherlands were studied. The most common DSM-III(-R) diagnoses included: major depression (n = 10) and adjustment disorder with depressive or anxious mood (n = 10). The psychiatric treatment of the HIV-infected outpatients did not differ fundamentally from the treatment of other psychiatric outpatients with similar problems. The increasing number of HIV infected patients in the Netherlands living outside of Amsterdam, would appear to urge more education of psychiatric and other health care professionals concerning specific aspects of HIV infection, homosexuality, prostitution and intravenous drug abuse.