Objective: This study assessed the effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy on the cognitive performances of HIV seropositive patients with severe immune depression.
Methods: It is a prospective longitudinal interventional study of 69 anti-retroviral naïve HIV-seropositive adult patients with CD4 levels ≤ 350/μl. The cognitive assessment was done at initiation and 12 months after anti-retroviral treatment using the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSID) and the computer-assisted Iron Psychology (FePsy). The impact of therapy on CD4 levels and cognitive scores of the patients before and after therapy were compared and tested for statistical significance using Student t test and one-way ANOVA.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 36.6 ± 8.8 years. There was a significant increase in CD4 levels of the patients from 144.75 ± 88.92 at baseline to 295.91 ± 148.79 after 12 months of HAART (p<0.0001). There were significant improvements in their cognitive scores (p<0.05) in all cognitive domains tested but the finger tapping task (motor speed) did not show any improvement (p>0.05). Combination ARV drugs with efavirenz did not significantly improve attention and choice reaction time.
Conclusion: Highly active antiretroviral therapy significantly improved the CD4 levels and cognitive performances of treated HIV positive patients in all tested domains with the exception of motor speed.
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