What psychiatric screening and monitoring might be needed with the new generation of hepatitis C treatments?

Impact of direct-acting antivirals on neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive dysfunction in chronic hepatitis C patients

Background

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with psychiatric and cognitive dysfunctions. We aimed to investigate depression, anxiety, and cognitive function of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients before and after treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). Forty CHC patients (20 non-cirrhotic and 20 cirrhotic) who had undergone DAA treatment in our outpatient clinic and ten controls. We administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression questionnaires to measure the anxiety and depression symptoms and the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instruments (CASI) to measure the cognitive function at the beginning and 3 months after the end of the treatment.

Results

Sustained virological response (SVR) was achieved in all patients. Post-treatment anxiety and depression scores showed a significant improvement than pre-treatment ones in CHC patients. Regarding CASI, before and after the treatment, a statistical significance was found in short-term memory (P = 0.001), concentration (P = 0.033), abstract thinking and judgment (P = 0.024), total (P = 0.001) in non-cirrhotic, Also, an improvement was seen in long-term memory (P = 0.015), short-term memory (P < 0.001), concentration (P = 0.024) and total (P = 0.01) in cirrhotic. However, these changes were still impaired in post-treated cirrhotic compared to controls.

Conclusions

CHC patients' anxiety, depression, and cognitive function partially improved after DAA therapy. Besides, improving the status of CHC, reversibility of cognitive dysfunction in non-cirrhotic patients may indicate the importance of treatment in early stages of liver disease.

Direct-acting antiviral treatment in real world patients with hepatitis C not associated with psychiatric side effects: a prospective observational study

BACKGROUND

Treatment of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has evolved from interferon (IFN)-based treatments to direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). Patients with HCV have an elevated psychiatric morbidity (including substance abuse) and patients with such comorbidity have often been excluded from treatment with IFN. To date, little is known about psychiatric adverse effects of DAA-based regimens. We therefore aimed to study the psychiatric side effects of new IFN-free treatment for HCV (including depressive symptoms and sleep) in real world patients also including those with a history of psychiatric diagnosis, substance abuse or drug dependence.

METHODS

Consecutive patients were monitored during treatment with three of the latest DAA agents (sofosbuvir, simeprevir and daclatasvir). Repeated expert psychiatric assessments from baseline to 12 weeks post-treatment were performed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) clinical version and the self-report versions of the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS-S) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Friedman's test was performed to calculate differences in the MADRS-S and PSQI over time. In a post-hoc analysis Wilcoxon's test was used to compare baseline depressive symptoms with those at post-treatment. Spearman's rank correlation test was conducted in another post-hoc analysis to evaluate the correlation between symptoms of depression and HCV viral load at baseline.

RESULTS

At baseline, 15/17 patients (88%) had a history of any psychiatric diagnosis; 11 (65%) had a history of substance abuse or dependence; and 11 (65%) had previously been treated with IFN and six of those had experienced psychiatric side effects. There was no correlation between depressive symptoms and HCV viral load at baseline. Symptoms of depression did not increase during DAA treatment and were lower 12 weeks post-treatment compared with baseline: MADRS-S 10.7 vs. 8.3 (p = 0.01). This observation held when excluding patients taking antidepressant medication. Sleep quality did not significantly change during treatment. Adherence to treatment was estimated to 95% and sustained virological response was 88%.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite high psychiatric morbidity, including previous substance abuse, patients successfully completed DAA treatment without increasing depressive symptoms or sleep disturbance. Symptoms of depression were significantly reduced 12 weeks after DAA treatment.

New direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C treatment and neuropsychiatric symptoms in psychiatric risk groups

Objectives

The new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have changed chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment perspectives by achieving success rates in all genotypes and by reducing the associated adverse effects in comparison to pegylated interferon α regimens. These adverse effects include depression, insomnia and suicidal intention, which make it difficult to treat psychiatric risk groups. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the neuropsychiatric symptoms during HCV treatment with DAAs in standard multidisciplinary clinical practice in psychiatric risk groups and to assess the risk factors associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms in this study population.

Methods

A prospective cross-sectional study was performed of all consecutive patients with psychiatric risk and HCV infection who completed treatment with the new DAAs at the ambulatory care pharmacy. We recorded demographic and clinical data, neuropsychiatric symptoms, emergency consultations, admissions to the psychiatric unit and interventions to manage neuropsychiatric symptoms. Statistical analysis was used to assess the association between neuropsychiatric symptoms and clinical data.

Results

We included 48 patients with psychiatric risk and detected 36 neuropsychiatric symptoms in 17 (35.4%) patients, with a mean of 0.75 neuropsychiatric symptoms per patient. However, no studied risk factors for developing neuropsychiatric symptoms were found in this population.

Conclusions

We found a moderate prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the psychiatric risk group. The neuropsychiatric symptoms more frequently reported were insomnia (17%), irritability (15%) and depression (13%). Neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with psychiatric risk can occur during treatment with DAAs but less frequently than with pegylated interferon α regimens, and so is a safe treatment for these patients.