Affiliation:
1. University of Bergen
2. Haukeland University Hospital
3. University of Bristol
Abstract
Abstract
Background
People with substance use disorders (SUD) have high prevalence of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and mental health disorders. We aimed to assess the impact of integrated HCV treatment on psychological distress measured by Hopkins-symptom-checklist-10 (SCL-10).
Methods
This multi-center randomized controlled trial evaluated psychological distress as secondary outcomes of integrated HCV treatment (INTRO-HCV trial). From 2017 to 2019, 289 participants were randomly assigned to receive either integrated or standard HCV treatment with direct-acting antiviral therapy. Integrated HCV treatment was delivered in eight decentralized outpatient opioid agonist therapy clinics and two community care centers; standard treatment was delivered in internal medicine outpatient clinics at centralized hospitals. Participants in integrated treatment arm had a sustained virologic response of 93% compared to 73% for those in standard treatment arm. Psychological distress was assessed using SCL-10 prior to initiation of HCV treatment and 12 weeks after treatment completion. A linear mixed model was applied to evaluate the impact of integrated HCV treatment on changes in the mean SCL-10 (ΔSCL-10) score.
Results
The mean SCL-10 score prior to HCV treatment was 2.2 (standard deviation [SD]: 0.7) for patients receiving integrated HCV treatment and 2.1 (SD: 0.7) for those receiving standard HCV treatment. Twelve weeks after the end of treatment, the mean SCL-10 score was 2.2 (SD: 0.8) for participants receiving integrated HCV treatment and 2.1 (SD: 0.7) for those receiving standard HCV treatment.
Conclusions
Psychological distress did not substantially change during the treatment period and was not significantly different between the treatment arms.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC