Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry

Among the vast and rapidly growing field of AIDS research, there is an ample body of evidence supporting the fact that psychiatric treatment can decrease transmission, diminish suffering, improve adherence, and decrease morbidity and mortality. There is probably no other illness in which the connections between mind and body are so inextricably woven. But until now there has been no comprehensive textbook of AIDS psychiatry to guide clinicians towards providing much needed care. Using a biopsychosocial approach, this 41-chapter volume offers insight into the interface between the psychiatric, medical, and social dimensions of HIV and AIDS. Drawing on clinical experience as well as evidence-based medicine, this textbook provides a basic understanding of the comorbid medical and psychiatric conditions that cause distress, morbidity, and mortality in persons with HIV and AIDS, while at the same time examining the epidemic from the viewpoints of public health and public policy experts.

Dr. Mary Ann Cohen has been a physician for 40 years and has devoted 34 years to the psychological care of the medically ill in the field of psychosomatic medicine. During those years, she has demonstrated her dedication to teaching clinical excellence and providing compassionate care to persons with medical and psychiatric illness and has helped to create health care environments that meet patients' needs and combat discrimination and stigma in the care of persons with medical and mental illness. Board certified in psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, Dr. Cohen has devoted the last quarter century of her professional life to the integrated care of an underserved population of persons with HIV and AIDS and has done so with optimism and dignity.