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Title: Psychiatric Disorders No Reason to Exclude Hepatitis C Patients From Peginterferon-Alfa2b Plus Ribavirin Treatment: Presented at EASL

"Psychiatric Disorders No Reason to Exclude Hepatitis C Patients From Peginterferon-Alfa2b Plus Ribavirin Treatment: Presented at EASL"

By Jill Stein BARCELONA, SPAIN -- April 16, 2007 -- A history of psychiatric disorders should not be a contraindication to treatment with peginterferon-alfa2b plus ribavirin in patients with genotype 2 or 3 hepatitis C, according to data presented here at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). Jean-Philippe Lang, MD, chief, psychiatry service, Centre Hospitalier Erstein, Erstein, France, reported results in 641 patients infected with G2/G3 virus who were treated with peginterferon alpha-2b plus ribavirin. "Clinical trial data indicate that adherence differentially affects response to therapy depending on hepatitis C genotype," Dr. Lang said in his presentation on April 14[^th. For patients with genotype 1, adherence is closely related to treatment outcome, with higher sustained virological response (SVR) rates reported in adherent patients.

For genotype 2 or 3 patients, SVR rates are similar among G2/G3 patients who meet the 80:80:80 rule and among those who are less adherent.

With the 80:80: 80 rule, at least 80% of the planned peginterferon-alfa and 80% of planned ribavirin doses are taken for at least 80% of the duration of the planned treatment.

Overall, 460 patients had no prior psychiatric disorders, and 181 had prior psychiatric disorders. The 2 groups were similar with respect to most baseline demographic, virological, and histological characteristics.

Mean duration of treatment (28.4 vs 29.4 weeks, P = .87), rate of early treatment cessation (13% vs 13%, P = .89), adherence to ribavirin plus peginterferon at month 6 (54% vs 51%, P = .566) and SVR (92% vs 83%, P = .151) did not differ significantly between the groups with past psychiatric disorders and the group without past psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Lang said that the study is the first prospective, community-based investigation to assess treatment adherence among patients with G2/G3 HCV infections.

The study was supported by Roche.

[Presentation title: A Prospective, Multicenter, Observational Study on Adherence With Viral Hepatitis C treatments (CHEOBS) Study: Impact of Past Psychiatric Disorders on Sustained Virologic Response (SVR). Abstract 607]

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