Abstract

Relatively little is known about cognitive changes in early human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. This study examined cognitive functioning in 46 HIV-positive gay men relative to an age and education equivalent group of 13 HIV-negative gay men. The HIV-positive men were asymptomatic except for lymphadenopathy or T4 counts less than 700. The cognitive battery measured language, memory, visuospatial, information processing speeds, reasoning, attention, and psychomotor processes. The HIV-positive group was significantly slower in processing information and performed significantly less well than the HIV-negative group on certain verbal memory measures. Deviations of 1 as well as 2 SDs from the norm/control group mean on four or more tests were observed in 43% and 22% of the HIV-positive subjects, respectively, compared with 8% and none of the HIV-negative subjects, respectively. The results suggest that cognitive inefficiency occurs in a subsample of individuals during early HIV infection.