Rate of depression among hepatitis C patients treated with interferon alpha and ribvirin

Aim: to find the prevalence of depression in patients receiving interferon and ribavirin therapy study design: prospective place and duration of study: bahawal victoria hospital,bahawalpur from july 2011 to june 2012. methods: total 522 patients of hepatitis c +ve screened by pcr for hcv rna were included according to inclusion criteria. an approval was taken from ethical committee and informed consent was also taken from the patients. results: in our study of 522 patients 260(60%) male and 175(40%) females were positive quantitatively for hcv rna by pcr. majority of the patients were in age group 34-41 years (age group c),231(53.10%) the study population. depression was found during screening in 87(20%) of patients at base line level. these patients were excluded from the study. depression was found in 170(39%) after treatment with ifn-α & ribavirin. out of these patients 94(55.3%) had mild,61 patients (36%) had moderate,9 patients 5.3% had severe depression and 6(3.5%) patients had very severe depression. depression of varying degrees is associated with ifn-α & ribavirin and needs effective control with antidepressants. conclusion: uninterrupted interferon therapy could be ensured to combat depression.