Incidence of psychiatric side effects during pegylated interferon-α retreatment in nonresponder hepatitis C virus-infected patients

Objective: Evaluate the incidence of mental disorders using pegylated interferon plus ribavirin retreatment in nonresponder hepatitis C virus-infected patients. Method: The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview ( MINI) was used to evaluate 30 hepatitis C virus-infected interferon-nonresponder patients at baseline and following 4, 12 and 24 weeks of pegylated interferon retreatment. Results: During the pegylated interferon/ ribavirin retreatment, 5(16.6%) patients developed psychiatric side effects: 3(10%) were diagnosed with major depressive disorder, 1(3.3%) had a brief psychotic disorder and 1( 3.3%) presented with panic attacks. Conclusion: This is the first prospective study evaluating the incidence of neuropsychiatric side effects during interferon retreatment of hepatitis C virus-infected patients, suggesting that the risk of acquiring serious psychiatric symptoms during retreatment with interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) may not be higher than during the first antiviral therapy. This finding challenges the hypothesis that during a second treatment with IFN-alpha, patients with hepatitis C may be at greater risk for neuropsychiatric side effects than naive patients.