Incidência de episódio depressivo em pacientes com hepatite C crônica tratados com interferon peguilado e ribavirina

Abstract

Chronic Hepatitis C is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease around the world. In the west, it represents the leading cause of liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and indication of liver transplantation. Currently, the usual treatment consists on the use of pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin, associated or not with the new protease inhibitors, for 24 to 48 weeks, depending on the genotype and the degree of liver fibrosis. Besides the far from ideal effectiveness, the treatment of chronic Hepatitis C is full of adverse events, of which the neuropsychiatric disorders stand out, especially the depressive episode. In Brazil, there are few studies about the incidence of that episode on double therapy. As such, the goal of this study was to verify the incidence and the factors associated with the appearance of the depressive episode in chronic Hepatitis C patients subjected to antiviral therapy with pegylated Interferon alpha 2a or 2b and ribavirin, as well as to evaluate the impact of the appearance of that episode over the sustained viral response. 112 chronic Hepatitis C patients were included, 80 of which were antiviral treatment-naive (control group) and 32 subjected to double therapy (treatment group), regularly followed at the Hepatology Clinic of the Gastroenterology Service of HU/CAS-Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, between June 2012 and June 2014. The HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) was used for tracking the depressive episode in both groups, being applied at baseline, at weeks 4, 12, 24 and 48 and 4 weeks after interruption of the therapy on the treatment group. The diagnosis of depression was established at patients with HADS ≥ 9. These were subjected to BDI-II (Beck Depression Inventory) for gradation of the depressive episode in levels minimum, light, moderate and severe. Clinical, laboratory, histological and sociodemographic variables of interest were obtained. On the treatment group, 25% of the patients developed depressive episode, with the peak incidence observed at week 12 of antiviral therapy. The depressive episode was moderate on 87% of the patients. It was not possible to identify predictors for the depressive episode. The sustained viral response rate was 75% and 67% on patients with and without depressive episode, respectively (p = 0,66). The results allow concluding that the incidence of depression on chronic Hepatitis C carriers subjected to antiviral therapy is high and was similar to what the literature describes; it was not possible to demonstrate factors related to the appearance of depression; the presence of depression did not influence the sustained viral response rate.