Recent evidence suggests that HIV-seropositive drug
users are impaired on tasks of visuospatial working
memory compared with drug users seronegative for HIV. In
the current study we evaluated the performance of 30 HIV-seropositive
male drug users and 30 risk-matched seronegative controls
on two measures of verbal working memory, the Listening
Span and the verbal Self Ordered Pointing Task. Impaired
working memory performance was significantly more common
among HIV-seropositive persons compared to controls, with
the highest incidence of deficit among symptomatic participants.
These findings indicate that working memory deficits in
persons with HIV are not domain-specific and can be demonstrated
reliably in drug users. (JINS, 2000, 6,
548–555.)