Waldrop D, Kumar M, Eisdorfer C; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. E11684.

University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL, United States

BACKGROUND: Injecting drug use (IDU) is a major risk factor for contracting HIV infection. One of the complications of this infection is cognitive impairment. In this study, we used general cognitive assessments and the mirror star-tracing task, a behavioral challenge test which involves complex motor coordination, as a tool to investigate cognitive/motor deficits in HIV-1+ IDUs. METHODS: The mirror star-tracing task, the Mini-mental Status Exam (MMSE) and Clock Drawing Test were administered to participants (N = 163) in three groups: HIV-1+ IDUs, HIV-1- IDUs, and HIV-1- nonIDU controls. RESULTS: Our findings indicate that injecting drug abuse has a deleterious effect on mirror star-tracing performance with chi square analyses showing a higher proportion of errors in both IDU groups than in the control group ( chi 2 = 7.490, p < .024). Correlational analyses suggest a relationship between MMSE and star-tracing (r = -.194, p < .016); however, preliminary analyses between the Clock Drawing Test and star-tracing were not significant (r = -.224, p < .139). Further analyses using univariate analysis of variance also support these relationships. One-way analysis of variance also revealed a significant difference between the three groups on the MMSE (F = 7.960, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that drug abuse in itself is a contributor to poor performance on the mirror star-tracing task. Although it is unclear from this study whether being HIV-1+ in addition to drug abuse further hampers performance on this task, the results from this study in conjunction with those of our previously published work with HIV-1+ men having sex with men (MSM), indicate that drug abuse may further complicate the HIV-1+ individual's ability to perform complex motor coordination tasks like the mirror star-tracing task.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Behavior
• HIV Infections
• Heterosexuality
• Humans
• Male
• Risk-Taking
• Sexual Abstinence
• Sexual Behavior
• Substance Abuse, Intravenous

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0015340

UI: 102252838

From Meeting Abstracts