title: Duration of highly active antiretroviral therapy regimens.
abstract: The median duration of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens was reported to be 11.8 months in one US study, but that study included both treatment-experienced and treatment-naive patients. The duration of initial HAART regimens for treatment-naive patients alone has not been reported. We selected 405 antiretroviral-naive patients who were seen at the University of Alabama at Birmingham HIV Outpatient Clinic from 1 January 1996 through 9 October 2001, and we assessed the duration of initial and successive HAART regimens in this group. Any antiretroviral medication change, excluding dosage changes, that lasted >or=14 days was considered to indicate the start of a new regimen. The median duration of regimens was determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis, and proportional hazards regression was used to identify factors associated with shorter duration of initial regimen. The median duration of initial regimens was 1.6 years, and medication toxicity-associated events were the cause of one-half of discontinuations. Only a history of opportunistic infection and injection drug use were significantly associated with shorter regimen duration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 35294-2050, USA. msaag@uab.edu
authors.forename: Ray Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Andrew O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Westfall
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Mugavero
authors.forename: Gretchen A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Cloud
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Raper
authors.forename: Ashlee G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Chatham
authors.forename: Edward P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Acosta
authors.forename: Kelly H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Saag
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D006678:HIV / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009894:Opportunistic Infections / Q000188:drug therapy; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000188:drug therapy; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data