The Definition and Scope of HIV Psychiatry: How to Provide Compassionate Care

Abstract

Persons who are at risk for, affected by, or infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are exquisitely vulnerable and deserve compassionate care. In this first chapter, and throughout this book, we present clinicians with approaches for prevention and care for persons with HIV that may diminish clinician anxiety and thus empower clinicians to make their work easier, more enjoyable, and less time-consuming and frustrating.HIV medicine and HIV psychiatry developed in the 1980s during the first years of the pandemic by pioneering internists, infectious disease specialists, pediatricians, and psychiatrists who recognized the specific psychosocial complexities of