HIV/AIDS has become a psychiatric epidemic. The disease causes or exacerbates such psychiatric disorders as depression, dementia, schizophrenia, and bipolar disease. At the same time, the presence of a psychiatric disorder can lead to increased risk for HIV infection and worsen the prognosis of patients once they are infected.

Dr. Glenn J. Treisman, who has been described as the -father of AIDS psychiatry, - describes the relationship between psychiatric disorders and HIV/AIDS and demonstrates the ways in which effective recognition and treatment of mental disorders can increase a...