Meenhard Herlyn, DSci, of Philadelphia's Wistar
Institute, says that more <br>patients might agree to take
high-dose interferon therapy if it could be made <br>less
physically difficult. <br>"Anything you can do to reduce the
side effects of interferon would be a big <br>help,"
Herlyn says. "Many people have to stop the treatment
because they <br>can't handle it." <br>People with
hepatitis C also are treated with interferon infusions
combined <br>with the drug Virazole. <br>Though it's
likely that many of these patients become depressed from
<br>interferon, few studies have documented how widespread the
problem may be. <br>The CDC says nearly 4 million
Americans are infected with hepatitis C, a <br>liver
disease transmitted from one person to another through
exposure to <br>blood or blood products. <br>Miller's next
study will look at whether Paxil can reduce depression
among <br>hepatitis C patients. So far, it seems to be
working, he says. <br>Hepatitis C expert Adrian M. Di
Bisceglie, MD, tells WebMD he gives <br>antidepressants to
patients on interferon therapy at the first sign of a
<br>problem. If patients have a history of depression or have
experienced <br>depression once before while on interferon,
he gives antidepressants before <br>interferon
therapy. <br>"We started doing this without [research to
support it], though," says Di <br>Bisceglie, a professor
of internal medicine and chief of hepatology at St.
<br>Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri. "It's
good to get some <br>science injected into this." But
he says the study does not mean that <br>everyone
who receives interferon needs to be pretreated with
antidepressants. <br>While it looks as though Paxil has a similar
potential to reduce depression <br>in hepatitis C patients,
the drug has sexual side effects that could become
<br>an issue for people living with a chronic disease
like hepatitis than for <br>those trying to get
through cancer treatment. <br>"It hasn't come up as yet,
but it might, and then, of course, we might think
<br>about using other antidepressants that might have a
little bit better profile <br>as far as sexual
function," Miller says. <br> <br>© 2001 WebMD Corporation.
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