BURNS IN A SUICIDE ATTEMPT RELATED TO PSYCHIATRIC SIDE-EFFECTS OF INTERFERON

A 50-year-old woman was admitted to our critical care center after pou ring lamp oil on herself and setting herself on fire. Diagnosed with c hronic hepatitis, she had received interferon-alpha at another hospita l. During interferon therapy she developed anxiety. irritability, slee plessness, and depression. At our hospital she underwent fluid resusci tation according to the method of Baxter. After treatment with topical cream and ointment, she underwent skin grafting. Interferon was not g iven. After discharge, wound healing proved satisfactory. She was inte lligent and insightful, and her mental condition remained stable with no apparent emotional problems. As she had no significant past medical or psychiatric history and no history of substance abuse, we believe that her depression was a side effect of interferon therapy. A number of reports have described depression and other psychiatric disorders a ssociated with interferon: but none of these accounts have concerned b urns sustained in suicide attempts. This case underscores the potentia l seriousness of adverse reactions to interferon characterized by emot ional disturbance and also illustrates that physicians who treat burn patients need to have an understanding of affective disorders and unus ual side effects of medication. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd for ISBI . All rights reserved.