Neuropsychological performance in symptomatic and asymptomatic HIV infection.
OBJECTIVE
To examine cognitive function in patients at various stages of HIV infection, and to determine the nature and severity associated with stage of illness.


METHODS
Subjects were administered an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests.


METHODS
Two hundred and thirty-three HIV-1-infected homosexual/bisexual men and 77 HIV-negative control subjects who had been screened for previous neurological illness. All subjects were volunteers in a longitudinal study of neurobehavioral complications of HIV infection.


RESULTS
Patients with symptomatic infection differed from controls on a large number of measures, and asymptomatic patients had a more circumscribed pattern of deficit. On a summary measure of cognitive impairment, there was a twofold increase in the prevalence of impairment in asymptomatic patients relative to controls, and a fourfold increase in symptomatic patients. Memory and dexterity problems appear to be early features of neurobehavioral dysfunction, and frontal lobe deficits were found in patients with symptomatic infection.


CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate that there is a steady increase in the prevalence of neurobehavioral abnormalities associated with stage of infection. The pattern of abnormality also varies with disease stage.
Department of Psychiatry, Ohio State University, Columbus.
R A
RA
Bornstein
H A
HA
Nasrallah
M F
MF
Para
C C
CC
Whitacre
P
P
Rosenberger
R J
RJ
Fass
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000523:psychology; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests