Characteristics of depression in chronic hepatitis C patients received pegylated interferon therapy / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the characteristics of depression in the chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients who received pegylated interferon therapy.Methods Clinical data of 218 CHC patients who were treated with pegylated interferon were collected in Huzhou Central Hospital,Zhengjiang from January 2008 to December 2013.The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) was used to assess the patient's depression symptoms during the treatment process.The sustained virological response (SVR) rate was assessed 24 weeks after the completion of treatment.Chi square test was used to compare the effects of treatment,gender,age,different types of interferon during the treatment process on depression,and to analyze the dynamic changes of depression and the effect of depression on SVR.Results Of the 218 CHC patients who completed pegylated interferon treatment,the proportion of patients with HAMD score ≥8 (n=73,33.19％) after treatment was significantly higher than that before treatment (n=20,9.17％;x2=40.321,P＜0.05).The female CHC patients were more prone to have depressive symptoms than the male patients (40.50％o [49/121] vs 24.74％ [24/97];x2 =6.097,P＜0.05).The incidence rate of depression in patients younger than 55 years old was lower than that of over 55 years (27.48％ [36/131] vs42.53％ [37/87];x2=5.271,P＜0.05).The incidence rate was not significant different between pegylated interferon α-2a group and pegylated interferon α-2b group after treatment (35.04％ [41/117] vs31.68％ [32/01];x2=0.275,P＞0.05).At week 8 of treatment,the number of depression patients increased most significantly.Totally 113 (51.83 ％) of 218 patients achieved SVR,including 57.53％ (42/73) of patients with depression and 48.97％ (71/145) of patients without depression,but there was no statistical significance (x2 =1.432,P＞0.05).Conclusion In CHC patients received pegylated interferon treatment,elderly and female patients are more susceptible to develop depression and the incidence of depression peaks at week 8 of treatment.