Neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric evaluation of individuals living with HIV

Objective: In our study, it was aimed to evaluated whether the neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric states of individuals living with HIV differ from those of healthy volunteers and their relationship with parameters indicating disease activity such as HIV RNA and CD4 count. Materials and Methods: The patient group was formed from 111 HIV infected people followed up in Ankara City Hospital Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Clinic, and the control group from 54 non-HIV-infected people who were compatible with the patient group in terms of age, gender and education. Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA), Beck Depression Scale, Beck Anxiety Scale and Stroop Test were applied to the groups. Results: When the patient and control groups were compared, vitamin D was significantly higher in the control group (p=0.043). When the cut-off value was 21 in the MOCA test, the number of patients with a score of 21 and above was found to be significantly higher in the control group (p=0.036). When the patient group and control group were compared in terms of their total MOCA scores, no significant difference was found between the groups (p=0.300). When the patient and control groups were compared according to the Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Test results, no significant difference was found between the two groups (p=0.258, p=0.303). When the patient and control groups were evaluated with the results of the Stroop test, the duration of completing Stroop 1 and Stroop 2 cards in the patient group was found to be significantly longer than the control group (p<0.001, p=0.019). When the results of the MOCA test, Beck Depression Scale, Beck Anxiety Scale and Stroop Test were compared separately with the disease related parameters such as CD4 count, duration of the disease, and CD4 count at the time of diagnosis, no significant difference was found. Conclusion: When we look at the results of the MOCA test, although the HIV-infected individuals and the control group have similar characteristics in terms of education, age, gender, and comorbid diseases, when the cut-off value of the MOCA test is accepted as 21, it was found that HIV-infected individuals scored significantly more below the cut-off value. When HIV infected individuals were compared with the control group, no significant difference was found in the rates of depression and anxiety. When we evaluated HIV-infected individuals among themselves, no significant correlation was found between the characteristics of HIV infection (CD4 count, duration of disease, CD4 count at diagnosis) and neurocognitive performance. Keywords: HIV, MOCA, Beck Depression Scale, Beck Anxiety Scale, CD4 count