Psychological Aspects of HIV Infection and AIDS

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Abstract
Publications on the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have reached such a pitch that leading medical journals have received letters of protest (Kubin, 1989), and some have been forced to defend themselves for the space they devote to the subject (Lock, 1989). While some consider that their problems have been ignored and that AIDS is attracting too much money and publicity (Adler, 1987), others believe AIDS research and clinical services are grossly underfunded (Rogers, 1989). Perhaps because modern medicine has rarely encountered such a completely ‘new’ disorder the fascination is great, no less in psychiatry than in other fields. An editorial in the Lancet (1989), just before the annual International Conference on AIDS, reminded us bluntly of the crucial questions: how many cases of HIV infection had been prevented in the year since the previous conference, and how many would be prevented before the next?