Depression May Compromise Treatment for Hepatitis C Virus

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Depression May Compromise Treatment for Hepatitis C Virus

Depressive symptoms often missed; HCV also has negative impact on job

productivity, health costs

Publish date: Jul 26, 2010

MONDAY, July 26 (HealthDay News) -- Symptoms of major depression in patients

with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are often missed during routine clinical

interviews, and the presence of depression hinders treatment outcomes; in

addition, HCV is associated with greater absence from work, lower productivity,

and higher health care costs, according to two articles published in the August

issue of Hepatology.

Christian Leutscher, M.D., of Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby,

Denmark, and colleagues found that 114 (37 percent) of 325 patients receiving

peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin for treatment of HCV developed major

depression during treatment, and that routine medical interviews diagnosed major

depression correctly in only 32 percent of those patients. The combination drug

therapy was frequently discontinued prematurely when depression emerged;

impaired treatment outcomes correlated with high Major Depression Inventory

scores.

Jun Su, M.D., of Bristol-Myers Squibb in Wallingford, Conn., and colleagues

examined employee records on 339,456 employees of large U.S. employers for

demographics, salary, use of health care, workers' compensation, and loss of

work, and compared HCV-infected subjects with randomly selected individuals

without HCV. They found that employees with HCV had significantly more lost work

days than those without HCV, with 4.15 more days of absence. Health care costs

were significantly higher in the HCV employees, with a total incremental

difference of $8,352 per year.

" This real world study provides evidence that there is a substantial indirect

burden of illness and describes a relationship between HCV infection,

productivity, increased absenteeism, and higher health care benefit costs, " Su

and colleagues conclude.

Su is currently affiliated with Boehringer Ingelheim, and a co-author disclosed

an affiliation with Amgen.