Psychiatric Issues Can Loom Large in HIV

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NEW ORLEANS -- The neurologic and psychiatric aspects of HIV should be treated at least as aggressively as the impact of the disease on the liver, lungs, and heart, Dr. Marshall Forstein said at the American Psychiatric Association's Institute on Psychiatric Services.

HIV invades the brain beginning at the time of seroconversion, and can progress in the central nervous system independently of the peripheral progression of the disease, resulting in neurologic effects that can adversely affect the course of illness, adherence to treatment, secondary transmission, and survival, Dr. Forstein, of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction can occur as a result of the effects of …