J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1997; 9:29-36
Copyright © 1997 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
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RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL |
Sustained-release methylphenidate for cognitive impairment in HIV-1- infected drug abusers: a pilot study
CH van Dyck, TJ McMahon, MI Rosen, SS O'Malley, PG O'Connor, CH Lin, HR Pearsall, SW Woods and TR Kosten
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
Other investigators have reported clinical improvement from psychostimulant
drugs in patients with HIV-1-related cognitive impairment. However, no
previous research has substantiated this claim by using a controlled study
design. We examined the efficacy of sustained-release methylphenidate (MSR)
in a sample of substance abusers with HIV-1-related cognitive impairment.
Eight HIV-1-infected methadone patients with impaired neuropsychological
test performance participated in an inpatient double-blind
placebo-controlled crossover trial of MSR 20-40 mg/day. On a composite
neuropsychological measure, patients improved significantly from baseline
during MSR but not placebo treatment. Nevertheless, MSR performance did not
differ significantly from placebo performance. Patients appeared to improve
as a function of time, regardless of sequence, with somewhat more
improvement during MSR than placebo treatment.
