ABSTRACT
Neuropsychological and neurobehavioral manifestations associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection and factors relevant to their assessment in Hispanic populations warrant special consideration in a handbook of this nature. This unique merit is partly the result of the increasing incidence and cumulative prevalence of this infectious disease in this population in the United States and abroad, particularly for Hispanic women and children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996; Mann, Tarantola, & Netter, 1992; World Health Organization, 1996). The Hispanic population in the United States has recently increased to become the fifth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world (approximately 25 million individuals) after Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993), yet the current availability of neuropsychological tests and procedures in Spanish from which reliable and valid inferences can be drawn is extremely limited (Pontón et al., 1996). The lack of adequate assessment instruments and normative data for Hispanics is of particular concern because of the multitude of ways in which HIV affects the central nervous system (CNS) of adults (I.Grant et al., 1987; McArthur, 1994; Navia, Jordan, & Price, 1986; Snider et al., 1983) and children (Belman, 1990; Epstein et al., 1986; Falloon, Eddy, Wiener, & Pizzo, 1989; Pizzo & Wilfert, 1994) and their neuropsychological and neurobehavioral functions (Bayés, 1995; Brouwers, Belman, & Epstein, 1991, 1994; Brouwers, Moss, Wolters, Eddy, & Pizzo, 1989; Levy & Fernandez, 1997; Llorente, LoPresti, & Satz, 1997; Llorente et al., 1998; Navia, Jordan, & Price, 1986; Tross et al., 1988; Van Gorp, Miller, Satz, & Visscher, 1989). Therefore, a chapter dedicated to the neurocognitve effects of HIV infection spectrum disease and assessment issues in Hispanic populations is sufficiently justified.
