A Study of Health-Related Quality of Life in HIV-Infected Patients Undergoing Structured Treatment Interruptions of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Because of multi-drug regimens known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), HIV infection can now be considered a chronic, manageable disease for many people in the United States. However, these therapies come with complex medication administration regimens and numerous side effects and distressing symptoms, which may impact significantly on a person's health-related quality of life (HR-QOL). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the HR-QOL and symptom distress (the degree of discomfort from specific symptoms) in individuals participating in the NIAID protocol, "Immunologic and virologic studies of intermittent versus continuous HAART in the treatment of HIV disease". In that study thirty-five subjects will be randomly assigned to receive continuous HAART therapy and 35 subjects will receive interrupted therapy. In this, a companion study, HR-QOL and symptom distress will be measured at seven time points during the 88 weeks of the protocol. Data will be analyzed using repeated measures and multivariate statistical tests.