Lopinavir/Ritonavir Dosage Form Affects Quality of Life During Monotherapy in HIV-Positive Adults

Abstract

This was a single-center, open-label study of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) single-agent therapy in antiretroviral-naive, HIV-infected participants initiating therapy with twice-daily soft-gelatin capsules (SGC) and switched to tablets after ≥4 weeks. The objective was to evaluate quality of life and tolerability of the 2 formulations. Participants quality of life, depression, and tolerability were measured using the Medical Outcomes Study-HIV (MOS-HIV), Modified Global Condition Improvement (GCI), and Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D), prior to and 4 weeks following switch. MOS-HIV showed significant improvements in general health perception (+6 (16), mean (SD); P = .047) and role functioning (+8 (19), mean (SD); P = .023) post-switch. GCI showed significant improvement in ease of taking medications with tablets (56.7% vs 83.3%; P = .021). No change was observed in CES-D. Tolerability improved in 47%. Reported diarrhea (grade 2) was higher during SGC (33.3% vs3.3%; P = .004). Quality-of-life measures, tolerability, and diarrhea improved with the LPV/r tablet formulation compared to SGC in HIV-positive patients not receiving other antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Health-related quality of life of HIV-infected patients taking different antiretroviral regimens at a tertiary healthcare facility in northern Nigeria

“…Studies comparing the HRQoL outcome of different ARV regimens appear to be few. Although, studies on the QoL of patients on different dosage forms of Lopinavir/ritonavir in monotherapy [9], and that of patients on efavirenz-based regimens, who were previourly on Protease inbibitor-based regimens [10] were conducted. Others were on the overall HRQoL of PLWHA receiving ART and the effects of sociodemographic and clinical variables [6,11,12].…”