Douglas–Newman KR, et al. – This research ascertained if higher levels of recent drinking in HIV+ individuals correlated with poorer cognitive performance, especially in executive functioning and memory. It was noted that the cognitive weaknesses were detectable among these non–treatment–seeking HIV+ drinkers. Nevertheless, the level of alcohol consumption was not a primary determinant of neurocognitive performance in this group. A detailed investigation could be extremely valuable for determining the cognitive strengths and weaknesses, owing to the heterogeneity of the study cohort. The analysis of potential additive or synergistic effects of heavy drinking and HIV seropositivity on cognitive performance warranted further exploration.

Methods

• A comprehensive cognitive battery was administered to 120 seropositive subjects (101 men) who reported alcohol consumption in the preceding 90 days.
• If enrollees sought alcohol treatment or exhibited evidence of dementia, they were excluded from the trial.
• The performance in executive functioning, verbal learning/memory, visual learning/memory, attention, working memory, and psychomotor speed was estimated via computerized CogState battery.
• The computerized Iowa Gambling Task analyzed the decision-making.

Results

• The HIV+ individuals demonstrated considerably slower psychomotor speed than a normative sample.
• Although across most domains, neurocognitive performance was not prominently linked to recent alcohol consumption, performance on the CogState measures of visual memory and attention was reported to be markedly poorer, with a higher level of drinking in the past 3 months and a current alcohol use disorder, respectively.