DETERMINANTS OF COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may have a variety of neuropsychiatric syndromes. Assessment of cognitive functioning for t hese patients is complicated by increased prevalence and disease sever ity among groups obtaining lower scores on measures of cognitive funct ioning in normative national samples. Cognitive ability was quantified in a diverse cohort of patients with SLE and a demographically matche d group of control participants. Hierarchical regression demonstrated a small increase (6%) in explained variation in cognitive functioning when presence of SLE was added to the equation derived from demographi c variables. No significant interaction was found between race and dis ease. These results suggest that increased frequency of cognitive impa irment in African Americans with SLE is due to the additive effects of psychosocial variables.