PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION;

Abstract

With recent availability of Sofosbuvir, Chronic Hepatitis C treatment paradigmhas changed considerably. However for a resource constrained country like Pakistan, still thestandard treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C remains the combination of Interferons and Ribavirin.Depression, sometimes major, is a recognized side effect of this combination. Objective: Theobjective of our study was to analyze the prevalence of depression during treatment with pegylatedinterferon and ribavirin in patients infected with Hepatitis C at two tertiary care hospitals Lahore.Setting: All these patients were selected randomly from outpatient departments at FatimaMemorial Hospital and Alshafi Hospital Lahore. Duration of study: Duration of our study wastwo years and 3 months from January 2010 to April 2012. Patients and Method: We included180 patients in our study. We confirmed the diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C in all these willinglyparticipated patients. All these participants were put on combination of pegylated interferonand ribavirin. Serial follow ups were done for the assessment of development of depressionduring the treatment of Hepatitis C. Results: 46.8 (26%) patients developed depression duringtreatment. Depression was more common in the middle of treatment which gradually improvednear the end of treatment. Conclusion: We reached at a conclusion in our study that there isdefinite correlation of depression with pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy in hepatitis Cpatients.