Depression and Immunity: the HCV model

Available research shows that only some individuals will develop a specific psychiatric disorder in the presence of the same life events. Different regulation scales are used to define the events that can be considered as stressful and to value their psychological burden. A personal illness, especially if chronic, is certainly an event characterized by great emotional and psychological impact. Moreover, symptoms such as mood changes and anxiety, which are commonly observed in patients affected by HCV, can be related to the awareness of suffering from a chronic progressive disease and to the past or current substance abuse. It is well known that the assumption of interferon α (IFN α) is associated with the onset of depressive symptoms, similar to those observed in major depression, in fact, from 30% to 50% of patients receiving IFN develop depression during treatment.Many data in literature show the very important role of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the onset of the Depression.