Psychosis during peginterferon-alpha2a and ribavirin therapy: case report

• Autor(a) principal: Quarantini,Lucas C.
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Outros Autores: Cruz,Simone Cunha, Batista-Neves,Susana Carolina, Paraná,Raymundo, Miranda-Scippa,Ângela, Bressan,Rodrigo A.
• 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=S1413-86702006000600010
• topic: Interferon-alpha; hepatitis C; psychosis

Pegylated Interferon-alpha, combined with ribavirin, gives high sustained virological response in patients with hepatitis C virus, an important public health problem and one of the most frequent chronic infectious diseases worldwide. Though it has therapeutic benefits, treatment with IFN-alpha may be complicated by various side effects, especially symptoms of major depression and acute mania. Psychosis is a rare side effect, and its management usually includes discontinuation of IFN-alpha. We report a case of psychotic disorder that occurred during therapy with pegylated Interferon-alpha given associated with ribavirin. After good response to psychiatric treatment, it became possible to finish the anti-viral therapy.