Substance use and neurocognitive deficits in people living with HIV

• Grant number: 23/10627-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Lenice Do Rosário de Souza
• Grantee: Francisco José Del Hierro Chaves
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FMB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to study the relationship between the use of drugs, specifically, cocaine, crack and alcohol, and the severity of HIV associated neurocognitive disorder. It is expected that the extent of this cognitive dysfunction should be greater in people who use substances than in those who do not. This study justifies itself due to the great number of drug users between the population living with HIV, which certainly supposes a risk to it's health, since the HIV associated neurocognitive disorder affects many cognitive functions necessary to carry a pleasant life. It consists of a prospective cohort study. Patients with ages between 18 and 50 years will be invited to participate, as long as they are able to answer the questionaries and are not currently pregnant. Participants will be recruited from the Specialized Ambulatories Service of Infectiology "Domingos Alves Meira", reference in the attendance of people living with HIV in the region of Botucatu. To the patients which agree to participate, through the signing of the term of consent, will be applied two tests, one destined to evaluate their cognitive functions and the other to evaluate the patient's independence to carry out daily activities. These questionaries will be accompanied by a brief interview from which demographic data and information about the use or not of substances will be obtained. Subsequently, with the aid of the researcher's mentor, the patients' medical record will be accessed to gather data about the dates of HIV infection diagnosis and antiretroviral therapy start date, plasmatic viral load of HIV, most recent CD4+ lymphocyte count and nadir CD4+ count. The study will require the participation of 96 patients, which will be divided into 3 groups. One group will include 32 patients which do not use any substance, another group will be composed of 32 patients which currently use or have already used either crack or cocaine or both drugs. The last group will be made up of 32 patients which currently consume or have already consumed alcohol. After the data has been gathered, it will be included in an Excel spreadsheet and submitted to statistical analysis. The data will be evaluated descriptively with the calculation of average, standard deviation calculus, minimum, maximum and median values. For categorical variables, frequencies and percentages will be estimated. Averages will also be compared for quantitative variables between groups. All of these analysis will be carried out by SAS for Windows, v.9.4.