Brain Development and Health

Using HIV medicines during pregnancy is good at preventing the baby from getting HIV. However, we want to understand how these medicines may affect the babies as they grow up.

Adolescents with perinatal HIV (PHIV) or perinatal HIV exposure but uninfected (PHEU) may be at risk for

behavioral or emotional challenges. But they may not receive treatment. In our study, we wanted to see how many youth in PHACS experienced these challenges and how many were getting treatment. We also wanted to find out if there were things in their lives that made it more likely for them to experience these problems.

Some youth born with PHIV may struggle with taking their HIV medications as prescribed on their own, which is important for when they become adults. We wanted to know whether their skills with self-care, planning and thinking ahead, and independent functioning helped them take their medication.

People living with HIV may have changes in how parts of the brain are shaped. We wanted to know whether youth born with HIV have changes in the shape of their brains and whether the changes were related to HIV. We also wanted to know if the brain shape changes affected their memory and problem-solving skills.

In this study, we compared youth born with HIV to youth born without HIV to see if there were any differences in the way they learn new information and remember it. 

Some youth with HIV may have difficulty with memory, attention, and learning. In this study, we looked at the connection between past HIV disease and the brain’s activity when a person is doing any of these tasks.

In this study, we compared the learning and everyday functioning skills of infected and uninfected youth born to mothers with HIV. We also examined whether having HIV or an early AIDS diagnosis (an AIDS-illness at some point in their lives) made a difference in how well youth learned those skills.

In this study, we looked at infected youth born to mothers with HIV to see if having HIV affects the brain. We used laboratory tests to see if HIV may have affected brain function.  Then we compared the lab results to youths' scores on neurodevelopmental tests.

In this study, we wanted to find out whether mothers living with HIV have a higher risk for mental health issues and substance use than mothers without HIV. We also wanted to see whether they receive treatment for these issues. 

In this study, we wanted to see whether exposure to HIV medicines affects babies born to mothers with HIV in their first year of life. We gave the babies a test at one year old to see how well they were doing in five key developmental areas. We compared the babies whose mothers took HIV medicines while pregnant to the babies whose mothers who did not take HIV medicines while pregnant.

This publication was a collaboration between the Brain Development and Mental Health and Maternal Exposures Working Groups.

In this study, we wanted to find out if children's learning was affected if their mother took HIV medicines during pregnancy. We gave a series of tests to children with HIV ages 5 to 13 to measure how they think and learn.