HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG

 

On This Page…
News Briefs
Goals of the SIG
History of the SIG
How to Join the SIG

On Other Pages…
Important Resources
Shared slides, publications, presentations, bibliography
Listserv Discussion
Efavirenz and history of depression (2010)
Survey Results
HIV Psychiatry Treatment Consensus Survey (2008)

Welcome to the ACLP HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG, formerly known as the Organization of AIDS Psychiatry (OAP). The group was founded in 2003 to support mental health clinicians who provide care for persons with HIV and AIDS. See below for more history of the SIG. We invite psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who are working in the field of HIV psychiatry to join our SIG. We especially welcome clinicians in underserved areas to take advantage of the special assistance available in the form of PowerPoint presentations, literature references, and email notifications. To that end, in 2012, the ACLP HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG became the WPA Section on HIV/AIDS Psychiatry. See below for a detailed description.

HIV/AIDS Psychiatry is defined as an area of consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry that focuses on the prevention, care, and treatment of individuals with HIV or AIDS. This includes the psychiatric aspects of risk behaviors and antecedents; the psychiatric manifestations of HIV and its stigma; the psychological consequences of HIV and its multimorbidities; the impact on people who are infected and affected by HIV; and the need for a collaborative biopsychosociocultural approach to prevention, care, and adherence.

Our potential for collaborative involvement with other SIGs includes but is not limited to: Bioethics, Pediatric Psychiatry, Geriatric Psychiatry, Global and Cultural Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry, Palliative Medicine and Psychooncology, Emergency Psychiatry, and Women’s Health.

We also believe that HIV/AIDS Psychiatry is a paradigm for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry as well as for Integrated Care. The ongoing form of communication among SIG members is our listserv, but we meet in person or virtually (since the COVID pandemic) each year at the ACLP annual meeting in November.

The next meeting of the ACLP HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG will be at the 2021 ACLP Virtual Annual Meeting from November 10-12, 2021.

Co-chairs of the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG:

Luis F. G. Pereira,
MD

Paulo Marcelo Gondim
Sales, MS, MD

Early Career Psychiatrist Rotating Trainee Co-Chairs:

  • Rusty Baik, MD, 2018-2021
  • Nafisa Reza, MD, 2018-2021

 

 

News Briefs…

Members Receive Awards

The second edition of Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry – A Paradigm of Integrated Care, a collaboration of over 60 SIG members, was awarded Core Title of the Year 2018 by Doody’s Book Review Service.

Society for Liaison Psychiatry (SLP) Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award. The SLP was co-founded in 1973 by HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG Chair Dr. Mary Ann Cohen. In 2019, the SLP elected SIG member Dr. Kenneth Ashley for this prestigious award; in 2016, the SLP elected SIG member Dr. Andrew Roth; in 2015, elected member Dr. Maria Tiamson-Kassab, and in 2013, member Dr. Philip Bialer. Previous Awardees included SIG members Drs. Asher Aladjem, William Breitbart, Mary Ann Cohen, Stephen Ferrando, and Mary Alice O’Dowd.

2015 Hackett Award. Dr. Mary Ann Cohen, founder and chair of the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG, was awarded the Academy’s highest honor, the Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award, for her contributions to psychosomatic medicine, bioethics, and HIV/AIDS psychiatry. Dr. Cohen’s lecture was the first Hackett Award lecture devoted to the topic of HIV Psychiatry.

2014 Award of Special Recognition. This occasional, special award was presented to SIG member Philip Bialer, MD, FAPM, for his outstanding contributions to psychosomatic medicine fellowship training.

2013 Visiting Professorship Award. In November 2012, one of four ACLP Visiting Professorship awards was presented to SIG member Saba Syed, MD, FAPM, UCLA-Olive View. It was implemented in March 2013 by Visiting Professor Dr. Mary Ann Cohen for both HIV Psychiatry and Bioethics.

2011 Hackett Award. Founding HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG member William Breitbart, MD, FAPM, was awarded the Academy’s highest honor, the Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award, for his outstanding work in psycho-oncology as well as in HIV/AIDS and end-of-life care.

2010 Dorfman Journal Paper Awards. We are proud that 3 out of the 4 Dorfman Journal Paper Awards were presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting for articles on AIDS psychiatry by our SIG members: Drs. Harold Goforth (Best Review Article), Oliver Freudenreich (Honorable Mention, Best Case Review Article), and William Breitbart (Best Original Research Article).

2009 Award of Special Recognition. HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG founder and chair, Mary Ann Cohen, MD, FAPM, was presented with this special award for her outstanding work in consultation-liason psychiatry and her tireless contributions to the fields of bioethics and HIV/AIDS psychiatry.

Symposium on Novel Patient Engagement Strategies for Underserved and Vulnerable Persons with HIV

2018 was a particularly exciting and productive year for our SIG and its members. In May 2018, Drs. Pereira and Cohen organized a symposium on Novel Patient Engagement Strategies for Underserved and Vulnerable Persons with HIV addressing topics such as programs for homeless individuals with HIV, hepatitis C co-infection, HIV in immigrants and refugees, and collaborative care models.

Section Chairs Meeting of the 2018 WPA Meeting in Mexico City

Dialogues with Drs. Cesar Alfonso and Jordi Blanch led to Dr. Alfonso representing our SIG at the Section Chairs Meeting of the 2018 WPA Meeting in Mexico City in October 2018. Our SIG was invited to present our textbook at the WPA Book Presentation Conference in Mexico City. Dr. Alfonso gave a presentation describing our book, its member editors and contributors, and a summary of its objectives and table of contents. At this meeting, Dr. Luis Pereira chaired and presented a symposium on HIV/AIDS Psychiatry with Drs. Jordi Blanch and Kapetanovic at the WPA Mexico City Congress.

HIV Psychiatry Bibliography & Quarterly Online Literature Updates

Dr. Grimaldi (in collaboration with Dr. Cohen) selects and annotates articles for the Online HIV Psychiatry Bibliography. These are submitted to the HIV Psychiatry Bibliography and Quarterly Online Literature Updates and published on the ACLP website and in the WPA Newsletter.

New HIV/AIDS Psychiatry Section of the WPA

In February 2012, Pedro Ruiz, MD, president of the World Psychiatric Association and founding member of the ACLP HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG, informed us that the executive council of the WPA accepted the proposal that AIDS Psychiatry become a Section of the organization. The proposal was a result of his own dedication and work in HIV psychiatry and the efforts of SIG member Dr. Maria Ferrara, psychiatry resident at the University of Modena & Reggio Emilia in Italy, and Dr. Mary Ann Cohen. We believe that this new HIV/AIDS Psychiatry Section will help us to disseminate more information to underserved areas of the world where we have been unable to reach until now. In September 2014, the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry Section attained full status as a WPA Section.

Since becoming a Section of the WPA, members of the SIG have been attending the WPA Section Chairs Meetings and presenting on a regular basis throughout the world. SIG members, Drs. Cesar Alfonso, Kenn Ashley, Jordi Blanch, Maria Ferrara, and other members have represented our section. Drs. Kenn Ashley, Jordi Blanch, Mary Ann Cohen, Maria Ferrara, and Michelle Riba presented an intersectional symposium on HIV Psychiatry at the WPA World Congress of Psychiatry in Madrid, Spain, in September 2014.

Goals of the SIG

The overall goals of the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG are to:

  • Provide a support network for HIV psychiatrists and other mental health clinicians throughout the world.
  • Educate and update clinicians on how to prevent HIV transmission, stigma, and discrimination.
  • Educate clinicians to provide comprehensive, compassionate integrated care for persons with HIV.

The ongoing activities of the SIG to support the goals are to:

  • Develop consensus papers on screening for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders, models of integrated HIV care as well as other research topics.
  • Publish articles, chapters, and textbooks on HIV psychiatry. (See Recent Publications on our Resources page.)
  • Present symposia, workshops, and courses at ACLP, WPA, APA, and AAPDP Annual Meetings. (See Previous Presentations on our Resources page.)
  • Continue to maintain and update the online HIV Psychiatry Bibliography on the ACLP website in conjunction with the ACLP Research & Evidence-Based Practice Committee.
  • Maintain our full status as the WPA Section on HIV/AIDS Psychiatry.
  • Continue our involvement in the APA Office of HIV Psychiatry Steering Committee. (All the members of the Steering Committee are SIG members, and our SIG Chair serves as ACLP Representative to the Steering Committee.)

History of the ACLP HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG

Until 2003, there was no consultation-liaison psychiatry organization of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals that was dedicated to the field of AIDS psychiatry. Nevertheless, many mental health clinicians devoted their professional lives to providing care for persons with HIV and AIDS. There was a need for a national and international organization to provide networking and support for, as well as a forum for, the exchange of ideas and collaborative research — an organization to share knowledge, to present work, and to collaborate in education and research. To address these issues, Dr. Mary Ann Cohen founded the Organization of AIDS Psychiatry (the forerunner of the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG) in 2003 with 32 members. We now, as of June 2021 number 560 national and international members.

AIDS psychiatry is a paradigm of consultation-liaison psychiatry, and in November 2004, the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry agreed to establish a new Special Interest Group (SIG) of HIV/AIDS Psychiatry. The ACLP Executive Council, Executive Director, and administrative staff graciously welcomed  our previously named Organization of AIDS Psychiatry as the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry Special Interest Group (SIG) and provided us with a forum to meet and present our work at the ACLP annual meetings.

In November 2005, the SIG met for the first time and presented a symposium on AIDS psychiatry at the ACLP annual meeting in New Mexico. We’ve met at the ACLP annual meeting again each year since then and presented a symposium at the meeting every year except 2006.

In May 2008, we met and presented a symposium at the APA annual meeting in collaboration with the APA Office of HIV Psychiatry. That same month we also presented a symposium at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry. That same year, thanks to administrative support and resources from the Academy, the SIG had a listserv and a Web page (this page) and began to collaborate to develop a consensus base of current AIDS psychiatry practice.Our name change in 2009 from the Organization of AIDS Psychiatry to the APM AIDS Psychiatry SIG, and now the ACLP HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG, recognizes the important role of the Academy in the growth and development of our SIG as well as our potential role in the ACLP. We encourage all of our members to join the ACLP.

ACLP 2018 was active and a reflection of the growth our SIG has undergone. We recruited many new members with active voices from students and trainees, who will be able to continue and expand the work of our SIG. A pre-conference course was organized by Dr. Cohen and Dr. Cozza for this meeting. Members of the SIG presented Possibilities and Pitfalls: Advances in Biobehavioral HIV Prevention Interventions for the C-L Psychiatrist.

Membership in the SIG and How to Join

The primary means of communication among members of the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG is via listserv. Only members of the SIG may post and receive group messages, as well as view the archived postings. To join our SIG, please see How to Join a SIG.

We encourage all of our SIG members to also become a member of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. For an AIDS psychiatrist or other mental health clinician, the Academy is an important resource since AIDS psychiatry is characterized by multimorbid severe and complex medical illnesses. The ACLP is a remarkable organization that meets once a year and no matter how beautiful the location, the meetings are so packed with outstanding faculty and inspiring courses, symposia, and workshops that the location pales by comparison and the meetings are too good to miss! It is an organization that serves as an inspiration, a chance for networking, and a place to learn. Membership has many other advantages including a subscription to the Academy’s journal, Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (previously known as Psychosomatics). To join the ACLP, please see Join ACLP.

 

Important Resources of the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG

 

Cohen MAA, Makurumidze, BA, Alfonso CA, Tavakkoli M. HIV as The Great Magnifier of Maladies – Challenges for Prevention and Compassionate Care. In: Kostas N. Fountoulakis and Afzal Javed (Eds). World Psychiatric Association Advances in Psychiatry, 4th Edition. Springer, 2019.

Cohen MAA. How psychiatrists can prevent HIV transmission with pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. Psychiatric Times September 25, 2017; 16C-16E.

Cohen MA, Cozza KL, Bourgeois JA, Moghimi Y, Douaihy A, and the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. The role of psychiatrists in HIV prevention. Psychiatric Times. March 22, 2016; 33:30-32.
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/comorbidity-psychiatry/role-psychiatrists-hiv-prevention

Cohen MA. HIV/AIDS the Great Magnifier of Maladies is Entirely Preventable. India Empire Magazine. 2016.
http://indiaempire.com/article/1195/hivaids__the_great_magnifier_of_maladies__is_entirely_preventable/1

Cohen MA. HIV Pre- and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis: How Mental Health Clinicians Can Prevent HIV Transmission in Integrative Practice. SAMHSA Topical Brief2017

Cohen MAA. How psychiatrists can prevent HIV transmission with pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. Psychiatric Times September 25, 2017; 16C-16E.
https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/how-psychiatrists-can-prevent-hiv-transmission-pre-and-post-exposure-prophylaxis

Cohen MA, Bourgeois J, Cozza KL. Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry: HIV/AIDS Psychiatry. Published Online:21 Sep 2018 https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.9b20

Cohen MA, Bourgeois J, Cozza KL. Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry: HIV/AIDS Psychiatry. Published Online:21 Sep 2018 https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.9b20

Cohen MA, Psychiatric Aspects of HIV/AIDS, 8 Oct 2018: PsychiatryTalk.podbean.com

Editors of the WPA Advances in Psychiatry Series, 4th Edition invited Dr. Cohen and members of the Section on HIV/AIDS Psychiatry to submit a chapter to the textbook. The textbook was published in October 2018. The chapter is Cohen MAA, Makurumidze, BA, Alfonso CA, Tavakkoli M. HIV as The Great Magnifier of Maladies – Challenges for Prevention and Compassionate Care. In: Kostas N. Fountoulakis and Afzal Javed (Eds). World Psychiatric Association Advances in Psychiatry, 4thEdition. Springer2019.

Cohen MA. A practical approach to HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorder. Drexel University College of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine, 16 Jan, 2015.

Cohen MA. Stigma, Discrimination, and the Criminalization of HIV/AIDS in the United States: Challenges for Psychiatrists in the Delivery of Compassionate Care. American Psychiatric Association, Atlanta, GA, 16 May 2016.

Implementation of Collaborative Care for Depression in HIV: https://midusforhiv.org