While new pharmacotherapies are helping AIDS patients live longer in affluent Western countries, the disease continues to spread at an alarming rate in much of the world. To prepare psychiatrists to respond to the new and unexpected challenges of treating the disease in its third decade, APA’s AIDS Program Office and the Puerto Rico Psychiatric Society are conducting an educational seminar in San Juan on March 9 and 10.

Titled "Mental Health, HIV Disease, and AIDS: Caring for Patients in the Third Decade of a World Pandemic," the program will focus on the psychiatric aspects, epidemiology, and treatment of HIV disease.

There also will be sessions that address unique aspects of HIV and AIDS in Puerto Rico, including prevention and treatment issues. The Puerto Rico Department of Health estimates that as many as 70,000 of the island’s residents may be infected with HIV, and of those about 85 percent remain unaware of their HIV status. Puerto Rico has the second highest rate of HIV infection among U.S. states and territories, with the vast majority of cases attributable to injection drug use and having sexual relations with injection drug users.

Among the topics to be covered are CNS complications, mood and anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, somatic disorders, and comorbid substance use disorders. Workshops will be devoted to risk-assessment interviews, risk-reduction strategies, successful models of care delivery, and problems in managing the care of dually diagnosed patients.

The registration fee is $175 for APA members, $200 for nonmember physicians, $150 for mental health clinicians, and $50 for students and residents.

Additional information is available from Diane Pennessi of the APA AIDS Program Office by phone at (202) 682-6163 or e-mail at AIDS@psych.org. Registration materials are available on the APA Web site at <www.psych.org/aids/curricula.html> or from APAfastFAX by requesting document 4103.