Clinical management of a patient with drug dependence who attempted suicide while receiving peginterferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C

• Autor(a) principal: Fábregas,Bruno Cópio
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Moura,Alexandre Sampaio, Marciano,Renata Cristiane, Carmo,Ricardo Andrade, Teixeira,Antônio Lúcio
• Tipo de documento: Relatório
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-86702009000500015
• topic: Interferon-alpha; chronic hepatitis C; depression; suicide attempt; drug addiction

Pegylated interferon-alpha combined with ribavirin is the current gold standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C. Illicit drug dependence is not a rare co-morbidity among chronic hepatitis C population, what can make antiviral treatment an outmost challenge. Despite high sustained virological response rate following antiviral treatment, serious psychiatric adverse reactions may occur, like depression and suicide attempt. We report a patient with recurrent depressive disorder, previous history of suicide attempt and illicit drug dependence. We discuss the singularities and challenges of managing this patient in order to complete the antiviral treatment.