CHICAGO (Reuters) - Drugs used to gratification children infected with the virus that causes AIDS perform not appear to increase the jeopard of psychiatric problems in children, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Scientists have been worried well-nigh the high rates of psychiatric and platonic problems in children infected with the human immunodeficiency poison , or HIV -- the virus that causes

AIDS.

"The verbal contest that is coming up is wherefore do they have so many issues? Is it their HIV, is it their antiretrovirals or is it other factors?" said Dr. Sharon Nachman of Stony Brook University in New York, who worked up~ the body the study published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

In an earlier study, the team found similarly pre-eminent rates of psychiatric problems in children through HIV and in those who be the subject of a family member with HIV, suggesting that stresses in the environment likable play some role.

For the latest study, Nachman and colleagues looked specifically at children with HIV in an attempt to bother out some of those answers.

They analyzed data on 319 HIV-infected children and adolescents old between 6 and 17 years who were enrolled in the International Maternal Pediatrics Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Group study.

A third part of the children had at least one psychiatric disorder, such as dejectedness or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The team furthermore reviewed the children's disease recital and markers of disease severity, of that kind as their viral load -- the levels of the virus in their blood -- and measures of bane-fighting cells known as CD4 cells.

The team cast no link between the HIV drugs known viewed like antiretrovirals that the children were distress to control their disease and any psychiatric problem.

"It wasn't the antiretrovirals. It didn't matter what one. antiretrovirals the kids used. Those didn't predict or prevent a kid from getting a psychiatric illness" or having friendly or academic problems, Nachman said in a telephone conference.

When they looked at severity of the ail, as measured by how much poison was in the blood or for what reason well the immune system was operating, the results were mixed.

For copy, they said children who entered the study by a lower CD4 percentage -- a opinion of the number of infection-contention cells in the blood -- had smaller quantity severe depression.

But children who had occult levels of the HIV virus in their hot spark when they entered the study had additional severe depression.

However, severity of ailment did appear to play a role whereas it came to critical cognitive skills known considered in the state of executive functioning.

The team found children who had the greatest part severe disease when they entered the study did worse forward tests of executive functioning, such at the same time that remembering a sequence of numbers, Nachman uttered.

"It appears if you had a aloft viral load at a young verge of life or a low CD4 percentage, you did prepare a hit on your brain" in stipulations of executive functioning, Nachman said.

The study does not substantiate cause and effect, but Nachman related it does suggest that HIV contagion could affect the brain.

Some doctors are debating almost whether to treat a child who has in a ~ degree severe disease, Nachman said, but added that tests of the immune classification or levels of the virus may not declare the whole picture.

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