Relationships among neurocognitive status, medication adherence measured by pharmacy refill records, and virologic suppression in HIV-infected persons.

Background: Optimal antiretroviral therapy (ART) effectiveness depends on medication adherence, which is a complex behavior with many contributing factors, including neurocognitive function. Pharmacy refill records offer a promising and practical tool to assess adherence.

Methods: A substudy of the CHARTER (CNS HIV Anti-Retroviral Therapy Effects Research) study was conducted at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the University of Washington.

A randomized trial of the impact of a programmable medication reminder device on quality of life in patients with AIDS.

This 6-month randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact on quality of life (QOL) of a medication reminder device for patients with HIV. Patients were eligible if they had taken three or fewer highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens or were treatment naïve. The intervention group received the Disease Management Assistance System (DMAS), a prompting device that verbally reminds patients at medication times and electronically records doses, and a monthly 30 minute adherence educational session.

A programmable prompting device improves adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected subjects with memory impairment.

Background. Patients cite "forgetting" as a reason for nonadherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). We measured the effect of a memory-prompting device on adherence to HAART in memory-intact and memory-impaired human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected subjects.