Prospective and Retrospective Memory Complaints in HIV-Infected Individuals

Background and purpose: Deficits of retrospective memory (RetM) and prospective memory (ProM), which are two primary components of episodic memory, have been reported in prior studies in HIV-infected individuals. The present study aimed to further elucidate the characteristics of prospective and retrospective memory complaints in HIV-infected individuals. Materials and Methods: We recruited 50 HIV-uninfected individuals from the general community, and 67 HIV-infected people who were under the treatment of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Imam Khomeini Hospital of Tehran, Iran in 2016. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to inspect the differences between HIV-infected and seronegative volunteers. Results: The results of ANOVA showed that HIV-infected individuals had more complaints of in long-delayed ProM (p=0.049), short-delayed RetM (p=0.016), and long-delayed RetM (p=0.009) than seronegative volunteers. No difference was observed in the complaints of short-delayed ProM between HIV-infected and the seronegative volunteers (p=0.921). The results of paired sample t-test also revealed that ProM complaints did not differ with RetM complaints among HIV-infected individuals (p=0.55), but ProM complaints were more frequent than RetM complaints among seronegative volunteers (p<0.001). Conclusion: Through understanding the characteristics of ProM/RetM complaints in HIV-infected individuals, we will be able to provide appropriate rehabilitation programs which correctly target their ProM/RetM deficits.