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

Abstract

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 naïve patients.