Journal of Psychosomatic R

Book review

HIV and psychiatry. A training and resource manual

Kenneth Citron, Marie-Josee Brouillette, Alexandra Beckett

(Eds), Cambridge University Press, July 2005 (2nd ed.),

346 pages, ISBN 0-521-00918-9, £ 38.00

It was a great pleasure to read the second edition of this

comprehensive work. The aims of this book are to give a very

wide coverage of psychiatric and psychosocial issues that are

relevant to the care of people affected by HIVand AIDS. This

book is multi-authored with 19 chapters and contributions

from a wide range of disciplines including medicine,

psychiatry, psychology, public health, child health, child

and adolescent psychiatry, and medical ethics. The book is

aimed at mental health professionals involved in the care of

people affected by HIVor AIDS. The coverage is sufficiently

broad in my view that medical, nursing, and other disciplines

involved in the care of people affected by HIV or AIDS

(including general practitioners), but not in the mental health

field, might also find this a useful resource book.

The book is very well written with a consistent approach

to each chapter. It obviously is better to read the manual as a

whole, but the chapters are well capable of standing on their

own, if readers wish to focus on one specific aspect of care.

There is useful mixture of key learning points in each

chapter and case illustrations. The references used at the end

of the chapters are current and highly appropriate.

I found the chapters on treatment approaches particularly

interesting. The chapter on psychopharmacology gave a

very detailed analysis of potential interactions between

antiviral therapy and the commonly used psychotropic drug

classes of antidepressant and antipsychotic medication. It

also describes how people affected by HIV or AIDS might

0022-3999/06/$ – see front matter D 2006 Published by Elsevier Inc.

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2006.04.019

have more susceptibility to certain toxicity from these drug

classes due to the multisystem involvement of the disease

process, e.g., hepatic, bone marrow, than other populations

where these drugs might be used. Psychological treatment

issues and psychological aspects of care are very well

covered in several chapters. Issues such as treatment refusal,

bsurvivor guilt,Q and end-of-life issues are well covered. The

chapter on suicidal behavior is well worth reading in its own

right, covering difficult issues such as assisted suicide. The

chapter on legal and ethical issues of care is thought

provoking and should be useful for clinicians faced with

such difficult dilemmas.

The effect of HIV and AIDS in different population

groups is well covered. This is a very comprehensive

coverage, and, to illustrate this, the clinical issues affecting

younger people, the prison population, women, and differ-

ent cultural and social groups are useful reference sources.

Due to the size of the book, it is not possible to cover every

topic. Some other important issues might be worthy of

consideration in future editions, such as the needs of other

groups, such as people with learning disability and the

needs of older adults. Also, the particular issues of stigma

in people affected by both HIV and psychiatric disorder

are important.

In conclusion, this was an excellent and stimulating read

and is recommended.

Sean Lynch

Mental Health Research Group

Peninsula Medical School

Wonford House Hospital

EX2 5AF Devon, UK

esearch 61 (2006) 853