Influence of depressed mood on neuropsychologic performance in HIV‐seropositive drug users

Abstract

Some studies point out that depression affects the performance of HIV patients in neuropsychological tasks, but at present this effect is not clear. The purpose of the present paper was to study whether the presence of symptoms of depression affects the neuropsychologic performance of seropositive drug users in tasks of attention/concentration, learning and memory, language, construction and visuospatial function, speed of motor performance, cognitive flexibility, manual skill and concept formation and reasoning. In order to carry out this research a sample consisting of 127 male volunteer subjects was used. These subjects were distributed in four groups: one group consisted of HIV-seropositive drug users with symptoms of depression ( n = 33); the second group consisted of HIV-seropositive drug users without symptoms of depression ( n = 47); the third group was formed by HIV-seronegative drug users with symptoms of depression ( n = 15) and the fourth group was formed by HIV-seronegative drug users without symptoms of depression ( n = 32). The results reveal the effect of symptoms of depression (evaluated by the Beck Depression Inventory) on the neuropsychologic performance of seropositive drug users. This effect, however, was not observed in the seronegative group. These findings lead us to suggest that symptoms of depression constitute a risk factor for presenting neuropsychologic disturbances in seropositive subjects, which could well be acting as a factor that foments the neuropsychological effects of HIV.

Influence of depression and HIV serostatus on the neuropsychological performance of injecting drug users

“…24 The Spanish study reported that seropositive IDUs with symptoms of depression (BDI score >15) performed significantly worse than seropositive IDUs without symptoms of depression on measures of cognitive functioning. There are several possible explanations for the discrepant findings.…”

“…The VazquezJusto et al study was conducted in Spain, only with male participants. 24 No description of the racial/ethnic composition of the sample was presented. Therefore, the sample characteristics in each study may have been different and could have influenced the variation in study outcomes.…”

“…use of a cut-off of <15 for the BDI). 24,36 Other studies used continuous depression scores. 37 We attempted to determine differences in cognitive abilities between those endorsing no depression, mild depression and moderate to severe depression because even individuals with mild levels of depression may experience or perceive difficulty in cognitive abilities.…”

“…Vazquez-Justo et al used a statistical design that evaluated multiple cognitive outcome measures that did not adjust for multiple comparisons. 24 Because of the increased risk for type I errors in multiple comparisons, we chose to use a composite measure of cognitive performance, derived from factor analysis, so that our hypotheses could be tested with a single analysis. Others who studied the effects of depression on the cognitive performance of HIV-positive non-drug users assessed the relation of depression and HIV infection with multiple cognitive outcomes and statistically adjusted for multiple comparisons.…”

“…This led the authors to conclude that depression may constitute a risk factor for neuropsychological impairment in HIV-seropositive drug users and that depression may actually increase the neuropsychological effects of HIV. 24 These findings have important implications for the evaluation and treatment of cognitive and mental health problems in HIV-positive IDUs and thus require further validation.…”