Publisher's Synopsis
AIDS, the immune deficiency syndrome, spreads fear which is often excessive and may lead to AIDS phobia, an unfounded conviction of being infected, often in spite of repeated medical assurances to the contrary. Scientific aspects of AIDS phobia, a psychological phenomenon, and stratagems for coping with AIDS phobia victims are discussed.;The book commences with a review of the medical and epidemiological basis of AIDS, and considers the psychological and psycho-social aspects as well as various forms of phobic behaviour. It presents an outline of psychiatric diagnosis of phobic disorders, their associated diagnostic problems, and ways in which they may be resolved. There is a chapter devoted to the pattern of AIDS phobia observed in psychiatric practice, discussing possible psychoanalytical and psychological triggers for this condition. Case histories are introduced throughout the text which illustrate symptoms experienced by sufferers, and indicate approaches to treatment.;Discussion of in-patient psychiatric management of AIDS phobia victims incorporates a further range of example cases, which highlight the practical problems of differential diagnosis and psychiatric investigations. In a section dealing with pharmacological management of anxiety and phobia, serotonergic mechanisms are reviewed as possible general denominators of psychopharmacetic drugs known to be effecting in anxiety disorders. There is an illustration of the irrational element in the fear of AIDS infection, this being a chapter outlining the management of AIDS phobia in an 11-year-old boy. The book concludes with a study analysing disease symptoms in 60 sufferers who sought the AIDS Advice Centre of the Munich-Swaben City Hospital.
