Relationships among apathy, depression, and cognitive impairment in HIV/AIDS

This study was designed to determine whether apathy is associated with neur ocognitive symptoms and/or depressive symptoms in HIV/AIDS and also whether apathy is associated with patient expectancies about antiretroviral medica tion adherence. Seventy-five HIV+ homosexual men and 58 HIV+ women were ass essed for depressive disorders and symptoms. Neuropsychological tests measu red attention, concentration, learning, memory, executive function, and psy chomotor speed. Other measures included Marin's Apathy Evaluation Scale, th e Adherence Determinants Questionnaire, CD4 cell count, and HIV RNA viral l oad. Apathy was consistently related to depression and unrelated to neurops ychological impairment. Patient expectancies regarding medication adherence were unrelated to apathy when the analysis was controlled for depressive s ymptoms.