HIV infection presenting as psychosis: a critique.

A review of the literature on HIV and psychiatry thus far has revealed 13 cases of HIV infection presenting as psychosis. We argue that these cases could in fact represent either coincidental schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and HIV infection or HIV-related organic hallucinosis, delusional or affective syndromes with or without associated dementia (AIDS-dementia complex). The use of the term psychosis in describing AIDS-related behavioral syndromes is misleading, and should be replaced when possible by specific DSM-III-R categories.