Publication Abstract Display
Type: Published Manuscript
Title: Cognitive disorders in the era of combination HIV antiviral treatment.
Authors: Marcotte, TD
Year: 2008
Publication: Focus
Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Pages: 1-5
Abstract:Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, researchers and clinicians have known that HIV can enter the central nervous system early in the course of the disease and, over time, may cause changes in thinking, emotions, and behaviors. Among these changes are "cognitive impairments": problems with processing, learning, and remembering information. "Dementia," in which a person has severe cognitive impairments that markedly affect activities of daily living, was the most frightening and obvious consequence of HIV. Yet less severe impairments were even more common, including difficulties in remembering things (such as appointments), problems in doing more than one task at a time, and slowed thinking. The advent of triple combination HIV antiviral treatment in 1996 led to a dramatic decrease in both HIV-related medical conditions and deaths. But what impact have these treatments had on the cognitive effects of HIV infection?

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