Psychiatric complications of interferon alpha. Literature review and prospective study of 33 patients treated for chronic hepatitis C

An increasing number of patients are Likely to benefit from interferon alph a therapy for a chronic hepatitis C. Severe psychiatric complications have been described during this treatment. Their nature and their impact however are not yet fully known. During a three month period, we followed the prog ression of 33 patients treated with interferon alpha for a chronic hepatiti s C. The psychiatric problems experienced by the patients were mainly anxie ty and depression. The anxiety troubles, especially adaptation troubles lin ked wiht the hepatitis, disappeared during the follow-up. We noticed 4 majo r depressive syndroms (12.1%) connected to the interferon among patients wi thout previous psychiatric problems and a significant increase (p<0.01) in the average score on the depression scab MADRS between the 1(st) and the 3( st) month. These results justifie an early and systematic detection of depr ession troubles for all the patients treated with interferon alpha.