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Interferon-α induces negative biases in emotional processing in patients with hepatitis C virus infection: a
C M Cooper1, B Godlewska1, A L Sharpley1
1University Department of Psychiatry,Warneford Hospital Oxford,Oxford,UK.
Insights
Interferon-alfa (IFN-α) treatment for hepatitis C can alter emotional processing, leading to increased disgust recognition and reduced attention to happy faces. These changes occur independently of depression symptoms.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Immunology
Background:
- Interferon-alfa (IFN-α) treatment is linked to depression.
- Neuropsychological effects of IFN-α are understudied.
- Emotional processing is a key area to explore.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of IFN-α on emotional processing.
- To assess changes in facial expression recognition, emotional categorization, and attention.
Main Methods:
- 17 patients with hepatitis C undergoing IFN-α treatment were studied.
- Emotional processing was measured over 6-8 weeks.
- Tasks included facial expression recognition and the dot probe task.
Main Results:
- IFN-α treatment increased accuracy in detecting disgust.
- Attentional vigilance towards happy faces decreased.
- No correlation was found between depression scores and emotional processing changes.
Conclusions:
- IFN-α induces negative emotional processing biases, independent of depression.
- Enhanced disgust recognition may signal inflammation-related depression.
- Findings suggest a potential neuropsychological marker for IFN-α-induced mood changes.
Background:
Treatment of medical patients with the inflammatory cytokine, interferon-α (IFN-α), is frequently associated with the development of clinical depressive symptomatology. Several important biological correlates of the effect of IFN-α on mood have been described, but the neuropsychological changes associated with IFN-α treatment are largely unexplored. The aim of the present preliminary study was to assess the effect of IFN-α on measures of emotional processing.
Method:
We measured changes in emotional processing over 6-8 weeks in 17 patients receiving IFN-α as part of their treatment for hepatitis C virus infection. Emotional processing tasks included those which have previously been shown to be sensitive to the effects of depression and antidepressant treatment, namely facial expression recognition, emotional categorisation and the dot probe attentional task.
Results:
Following IFN-α, patients were more accurate at detecting facial expressions of disgust; they also showed diminished attentional vigilance to happy faces. IFN-α produced the expected increases in scores on depression rating scales, but there was no correlation between these scores and the changes in emotional processing.
Conclusions:
Our preliminary findings suggest that IFN-α treatment produces negative biases in emotional processing, and this effect is not simply a consequence of depression. It is possible that increased recognition of disgust may represent a neuropsychological marker of depressive disorders related to inflammation.
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