AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightElimination of HCV may itself decrease the number of patients who need psychiatric treatment.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Özet
Background/Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is known to impair the quality of life (QoL). Increased levels of anxiety and depression have been found in HCV infection with a prevalence of 28% and 33%, respectively. Our aim was to investigate depression, anxiety,and QoL of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients before and after treatment with a direct-acting antiviral agent (DAAA).Materials and Methods: In this study, enrolled CHC patients who had undergone DAAA treatment in our out-patient clinic. We administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) questionnaire to measure the severity of the anxiety and depression symptoms andthe Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire to measure the QoL at the beginning and at the end of the treatment.Results: Pretreatment anxiety and depression scores showed a statistically significant difference from the post treatment scores(p=0.000 and p=0.029 respectively). When we compared the SF-36 subitems before and after the treatment, a statistical significancewas found in physical functioning (p=0.026), physical role limitation (p=0.009), bodily pain (p=0.011), general health (p=0.017), socialfunctioning (p=0.006), and emotional role limitation (p=0.007). Also, an improvement was seen in the vitality (p=0.488) and mentalhealth (p=0.714), which was not statistically significant.Conclusion: Depression got minimally worse in the male group despite an improvement in CHC. Anxiety scores were improved withtreatment in the cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic groups significantly. A decrease in anticipatory anxiety may be related to the high treatmentsuccess with DAAA. Nearly all the subitems of the QoL scores were improved after treatment and these were more common in the femalegroup. Elimination of HCV may itself decrease the number of patients who need psychiatric treatment.