AIDS and neurological disorders: an overview

Neurological disease occurs frequently in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Disorders may affect either the central or peripheral nervous systems and may be the presenting manifestation of human immunodeficiency virus-related disease. Opportunistic infections and lymphomas are major causes of central nervous system disease. Increasingly, however, human immunodeficiency virus infection of the central nervous system is being recognized and is now associated with a syndrome of progressive dementia in adults, referred to as the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome dementia complex, and an encephalopathy in infants born to human immunodeficiency virus-infected mothers. Whether brain disease related to this virus will respond to antiretroviral drugs will be a major focus of future research. Although less frequent than central nervous system disease, disorders of the peripheral nervous system are increasingly being recognized, including cases that probably have an autoimmune basis.