Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026

Rapid Screening of HIV Reverse Transcriptase and Integrase Inhibitors
Published on: April 9, 2014
When do psychiatric side effects emerge during antiviral treatment of hepatitis C?
Gábor Gazdag1, Gergely Horváth, Olga Szabó
1Center for Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, Szent István and Szent László Hospital, Gyali ut 5-7, 1097 Budapest, Hungary, gazdag@lamb.hu.
Background:
This retrospective study aimed to determine the time-frame regarding the first appearance of psychiatric side effects in the course of antiviral treatment and the subsequent referral to consultation-liaison psychiatric services.
Subjects And Methods:
Medical records of patients receiving combined antiviral treatment with alpha interferon and ribavirin for hepatitis C at a hepatology outpatient clinic and referred to psychiatric consultation between April 2000 and July 2011 were scrutinized.
Results:
Time between the initiation of antiviral treatment and the first appearance of psychiatric symptoms was 10.64±10.68 weeks. Patients were referred to psychiatric examination 16.1±12.7 weeks after antiviral treatment had been commenced. The time frame of the emergence of psychiatric symptoms and the referral for psychiatric consultation did not correlate with the patients' age or sex. No relationship between substance/alcohol abuse and psychiatric history and the timing of psychiatric side effects and their assessment were found.
Conclusions:
This study confirmed that psychiatric side effects appear late in the course of combined antiviral treatment arising after 10.64±10.68 weeks the treatment started. The results also showed that some patients' psychiatric symptoms appeared immediately after the beginning of the antiviral therapy. This finding underlines the importance of monitoring patients' psychiatric condition as soon as antiviral treatment commences.
Related Concept Videos
Inhibitors of Viral Protein Synthesis
Effect of Hepatic Disease on Pharmacokinetics: Dose Adjustments Due to Hepatic Impairment
Hepatitis
Psychosis: Goals of Pharmacotherapy
Antipsychotic Drugs: Therapeutic Uses and Side Effects
Despite these side effects, antipsychotics are used therapeutically for various purposes, including managing schizophrenia, preventing nausea and vomiting, curbing...
Pharmacokinetics: Drug–Food and Drug–Viral Interactions

