Regular article: Successful treatment of chronic hepatitis C with pegylated interferon in combination with ribavirin in a methadone maintenance treatment program

Injection drug users constitute 60% of the more than 4 million people in the United States with hepatitis C virus (HCV), including many methadone maintenance patients. Few data exist describing clinical outcomes for patients receiving HCV treatment on-site in methadone maintenance settings. In this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of substance abuse treatment 2009-07, Vol.37 (1), p.32-40
Main Authors: Litwin, Alain H, Harris, Kenneth A, Nahvi, Shadi, Zamor, Philippe J, Soloway, Irene J, Tenore, Peter L, Kaswan, Daniel, Gourevitch, Marc N, Arnsten, Julia H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clinical outcomes
Hepatitis C
HIV
Methadone
Response rate
Treatment methods
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Summary:Injection drug users constitute 60% of the more than 4 million people in the United States with hepatitis C virus (HCV), including many methadone maintenance patients. Few data exist describing clinical outcomes for patients receiving HCV treatment on-site in methadone maintenance settings. In this retrospective study, we describe clinical outcomes for 73 patients receiving HCV treatment on-site in a methadone maintenance treatment program. Fifty-five percent of patients achieved end-of-treatment response, and 45% achieved sustained viral response. These treatment response rates are nearly equivalent to previously published HCV treatment response rates, despite high prevalences of ongoing drug use (49%), psychiatric comorbidity (67%), and HIV coinfection (32%). These data show that on-site HCV treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin is effective in methadone-maintained patients, many of whom are active drug users, psychiatrically ill, or HIV coinfected, and that methadone maintenance treatment programs represent an opportunity to safely treat chronic hepatitis C. [Copyright Elsevier Inc.]
ISSN:0740-5472
DOI:10.1016/j.jsat.2008.09.009