A Symposium on “Depression in Hepatitis C patients” was held during the 29th Annual Congress Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy on 24th February 2013. It was the first time that this important topic was addressed during this Congress which proved to be the biggest medical Congress of Pakistan having high attendance of gastroenterologists, hepatologists and internal medicine doctors from all across Pakistan.
In the Symposium, Prof. Shakeel Mirza, Head of Medicine Department CMH Malir Karachi & President Federal Chapter, PSG was speaker for the session. Prof. Shakeel Mirza during his lecture gave a very comprehensive talk on depression in Hepatitis C patients, its prevalence, its impact on quality of life of the patients underlying mechanism inviolate. The focus of his talk was to rule out the depression in these patients using the rating scales and optimize the interferon treatment outcomes through in time treatment of depression symptoms.
He further said that Depression is very common in medical disorders. It symptoms are very common in Hepatitis C patients. Upto 70% of HCV-treated patients treated with Interferon has been reported to have mild to moderate depressive symptoms and 20-40% has major depression. The stigma due to Hepatitis C and also Interferon associated depression has strong negative effect on quality of life and treatment adherence and is a risk factor for treatment failure.
He also described the management strategies and choice of anti depressant for depression in Hepatitis C patients. Moreover, he also shared Escitalopram being the safest anti-depressant for Gastroenterologists / Medicine doctors and most effective and studied anti-depressant for this group of population.
He emphasized on the need to rule out and treat Depression in Hepatitis C patients to improve quality of life. A multi disciplinary approach is needed to treat Depression in Hepatitis C patients
Lecture was chaired by International Delegate, Dr. Perveen J Kumar (Author of famous text book of Medicine), expressed in concluding remarks her views of anxiety on faces as nation and great surprise over the high prevalence rate of Depression in Pakistan; its association with medical conditions and its impact on society well being.
She emphasized to develop multidisciplinary approach with Psychiatrists/ physicians to treat depression and train the medical doctors.
The Lecture session was attended by large number of participants including the KOLs of Gastroenterology and Medicine across the country, more than 210 doctors also attended the lecture.
During the before the lecture, Depression rating scales (BDI, Zung, MADRS, HAMD) were also distributed that made the lecture more interesting.