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A ‘Pseudo-AIDS' Syndrome following from Fear of AIDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

David Miller
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, Paddington, London W2
John Green
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, Paddington, London W2
Roger Farmer
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, Paddington, London W2
Gillian Carroll
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, Paddington, London W2

Extract

We report two cases showing psychiatric symptoms associated with a fear of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). There have now been over 42 cases of AIDS in the United Kingdom (Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, 1984) since the first case appeared in December 1981, a year after the syndrome was first identified in the United States of America. It was the BBC television programme “Death in the Village” which brought the risks home to many UK homosexual men in mid-1983. Following the programme, the London Gay Switchboard received a high level of telephone calls from men who were afraid that they had AIDS (London Gay Switchboard, 1984).

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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References

Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (1984) AIDS Update. British Medical Journal 288, 1542.Google Scholar
Foege, W. (1984) The national pattern of AIDS. In The AIDS Epidemic (ed. Cahill, K. M.). London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Switchboard, London Gay (1984) Tenth Annual Report. London: London Gay Switchboard.Google Scholar
Miller, D. & Green, J. (1984) The AIDS epidemic: advising homosexual men on reducing their level of risk. British Medical Journal of Sexual Medicine, 11, 106108.Google Scholar
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