Peginterferon and Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus Infection?

Patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are more likely to exhibit cognitive impairment than are uninfected patients. Possible explanations include psychiatric comorbidities, the presence of the virus in cerebrospinal fluid, and potential effects of interferon therapy. Researchers have now assessed changes in cognition among HCV-infected patients by doing a subgroup analysis of data from the HALT-C trial.

In HALT-C, HCV-infected patients who had advanced fibrosis and had failed previous interferon-based treatment were randomized to receive placebo or maintenance therapy with peginterferon alfa-2a (typically, 90 µg/week) for 3.5 years (JW Gastroenterol Dec 5 2008). The current analysis focused on 66 peginterferon recipients an…