Are we losing mental capacity in HIV?

This study really worries me. Median CD4 cells were in the 400, and half were naive. So these are not sick patients. I wish they had defined what mild cognitive impairment is. I forget faces, names, things to do, sometimes important personal data, etc. At 48 years old, I have the feeling that this is not normal. Studies like this one just feed that concern….
They say that may be most of the HIV meds we are taking may not be penetrating the central nervous system as well as they should, and thus we may be losing mental capacity with time.
I wonder if anyone is doing studies with the use of Alzheimer drugs for HIV related cognitive impairment….

Link:The prevalence and incidence of neurocognitive impairment in the HAART era (08/30/07)

The study conclusions:

“….By the most conservative estimate, an assessment of neurocognitive function revealed that 26% of subjects selected from the ALLRT study were cognitively impaired at their baseline Neuroscreen….226 (58%) had a follow-up visit at which their test scores indicated they were neurologically unimpaired. This may be related to the favorable effects of HAART on neurological function
There was a relationship between immunological status and prevalent neurocognitive impairment, but we did not find substantial evidence to suggest that virological factors were associated with prevalent neurocognitive impairment….

the observed decline in neurocognitive functioning despite ART is consistent with the hypothesis that viral replication in the CNS may not be well controlled in some patients treated with HAART, perhaps because antiretroviral drugs may not penetrate adequately into the CNS…”

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