title: Cognitive impulsivity and HIV serostatus in substance dependent males.
abstract: HIV-seropositive (HIV+) drug users show impaired performance on measures of integrity of prefrontal-subcortical systems. The Iowa Gambling Task (GT) is mediated primarily through ventromedial-prefrontal systems, and poor performance on this measure ("cognitive impulsivity") is common among substance dependent individuals (SDIs) as well as patients with disease involving prefrontal-subcortical systems (e.g., Huntington disease). We hypothesized that HIV+ SDIs might be more vulnerable to cognitive impulsivity when compared with HIV-seronegative (HIV-) SDIs because recent studies report evidence of additive effects of HIV serostatus and drug dependence on cognition. Further, working memory is considered a key component of GT performance and is reliably impaired among HIV+ SDIs compared to controls. We administered the GT to 46 HIV+ and 47 well-matched HIV- males with a past or current history of substance dependence. In addition, we evaluated correlations between subjects' scores on the GT and on a delayed nonmatch to sample (DNMS) task in order to test if working memory deficits accounted for cognitive impulsivity among the HIV+ subjects. The HIV+ subjects performed significantly more poorly on the GT compared to the HIV- group but this effect could not be explained by working memory deficits. Implications of these findings for future basic and applied studies of HIV and substance dependence are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. EMartin@psych.uic.edu
authors.forename: Eileen M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Pitrak
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Weddington
authors.forename: Niles A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Rains
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nunnally
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nixon
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grbesic
authors.forename: Jasmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vassileva
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bechara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*