Abstract
A prospective longitudinal study of neuropsychological and psychosocial functioning in a methadone-maintained population was initiated to test the hypothesis that cognitive impairments may be present early in the course of HIV infection, before the onset of other physical symptoms. A total of 220 methadone-clinic patients without evidence of HIV-related illnesses were given baseline psychological screening tests, as well as serological testing for HIV antibodies. At baseline, 83 (38%) had antibodies to HIV and 137 (62%) did not. On initial testing, controlling for race/ethnicity, age, sex and drug use, the seropositives were more cognitively impaired than the seronegatives. The differences were statistically significant for three subtests on univariate analysis: finger tapping (dominant), digit span (forward) and similarities. Ninety-one patients whose current serological status was known were given follow-up neuropsychological and psychosocial assessments after a mean interval of 7.4 months from baseline testing. At follow-up, seropositives continued to be more cognitively impaired than seronegatives, but there was no deterioration in the performance of the initial seropositives over the time interval.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 565-569 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | AIDS |
Volume | 4 |
Issue number | 6 |
State | Published - Jun 1990 |
Keywords
- Neuropsychologic function in HIV positives
- Neuropsychologic function in intravenous drug users
- Psychosocial distress in HIV positives
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases