Neuroscience of HIV infection: basic and clinical frontiers

Whilst this conference presented no new or exciting breakthroughs in our understanding of the psychosocial or neuropsychological aspects of HIV disease, there were some useful contributions to our knowledge in these areas. Previous work suggesting that HIV seropositive individuals with HIV are no more likely to suffer poor psychosocial adjustment than matched HIV-controls. However, where psychiatric disorders are seen, the most common are adjustment disorders followed by drug and alcohol abuse. Mania, whilst quite rare, may be more commonly seen with HIV than should be expected. People with asymptomatic HIV infection appear to be no more likely to show a cognitive deficit than matched HIV-individuals and this appears to be equally true for gay men, intra-venous drug users and people with haemophilia. However, as the disease progresses, neuropsychological impairment, or even dementia, may be seen and when this occurs the pattern of decline appears to be precipitous rather than insidious.