[Psychiatric intervention in a medical hospitalization unit admitting HIV positive patients].

Description of the intervention of psychiatrists with HIV positive hospitalized patients. An analysis of 26 cases over a six-months period. Attention is drawn on the following characteristics: 1) limited extend of the psychiatrist's intervention when the medical team is organized as to allow the patient's psychological support (psychologists participating to the "staff", supervision by an independent psychiatrist); 2) specificity of the psychiatrist's intervention in such a context, which relate to: a) the differential diagnosis between psycho-organic syndromes and major emotional disorders, b) in difficult cases, the definition of the therapeutical scope; 3) necessary search for a more adapted support of male patients admitted for psychosocial reasons and especially for addicted patients.