Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection, Dementia and the Older Patient

Abstract

Australian statistics have shown that 10.9% of AIDS cases have occurred in the 50 years and over age group. To date little attention has been given to the many issues surrounding HIV infection in the older population, for example, the failure to consider HIV as an aetiological factor in the older person presenting with neuropsychiatric disorder and the potential for misdiagnosis of AIDS dementia complex as dementia of the Alzheimer type. This paper includes a discussion of the clinical features of the AIDS dementia complex, its resemblance to the syndrome of “subcortical dementia”, and review of the literature reporting dementia as the presenting feature of HIV infection in older individuals.