Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Exergaming in Older People Living with HIV Improves Balance, Mobility and Ameliorates Some Aspects of Frailty
Published on: October 6, 2016
Confirmed marijuana use and lymphocyte count in black people living with HIV
Larry Keen1, Antonio Abbate2, Gwenna Blanden1
1Department of Psychology, Virginia State University, United States.
Background:
Marijuana is a commonly used recreational substance with purported analgesic and mood enhancing properties. Many people living with HIV identify marijuana as a palliative substance. However, through its main psychoactive component, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is known to influence the immune system. The effects of marijuana use in people with HIV are still controversial, with very scant literature in Black adults.
Methods:
The current study determined the differences in the lymphocyte count, specifically the number cluster differentiation 4 and 8 (CD4+ and CD8+), among patients who urine drug tested negative for THC (n = 70) and those who tested positive for THC (n = 25). The sample included 95 Black people living with HIV, 51% female, with a mean age of 46 ± 11 years. Participants provided a urine sample for substance use testing and a trained researcher extracted clinical data from clinical charts on the day of appointment.
Results:
After adjusting for demographic and HIV-related covariates, THC-positive patients had significantly higher CD4+ and CD8+ counts than their THC-negative counterparts.
Conclusion:
These results extend previous HIV-related immunity findings in an underrepresented group, and suggest that THC use does not reduce immune function as measured by CD count. Further research is warranted on the overall effects of THC on immune function in HIV positive patients.
Related Concept Videos
Confirmation Biases
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Protein Dynamics in Living Cells
Fluorescent recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) is a fluorescent-protein-based detection technique used to quantify protein movement rates within the cell. This method exposes a small portion of the cell to an intense laser beam. The laser beam causes permanent photobleaching of the fluorophore-tagged proteins in the exposed region. As the bleached...
Theory of Romantic Attachment in Adulthood
Longitudinal Research
Self-Discrepancy Theory

