Relation of personality and attentional factors to cognitive deficits in human immunodeficiency virus-infected subjects.

In view of the evidence that patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection experience reactive depression and anxiety, it is important to determine whether these factors might account for some of the cognitive deficiencies observed in this group, as is often the case in psychiatric populations. An extensive battery of cognitive, personality, and attention tests was administered to 26 patients who tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus. In this group were patients who demonstrated no symptoms, patients who had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related complex, and patients who had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Pearson Product Moment correlations were computed between scores on the three types of measures. The results of this correlational study suggest that cognitive decline in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus is independent of mood and attentional changes.