interferon treatment and alcohol

[mike2733]

Hi, I have been on the interferon treatment for 4 months now and was clean and sober the whole time but recently went out drinking twice. I am just wondering if this will effect my treatment at all. I know that i shouldn't be drinking, nor do i want to. My sobriety is important to me, I just had this set back. so please no ehical responses. I plan to not drink again. Just wanted some feedback if my treatment should still be ok. For the hepatitis was undetectable last appointment I had. Thanks

[nygirl7]

It sure would be a bummer to get back that next PCR test and find a number next to it, that's the truth.  None of us can guarantee anything though - anything is possible when you take chances like this with the meds.

[GSDgirl]

My doctor told me in no uncertain terms that if I was to drink he would discontinue treatment.  

[Trinity4]

Just a side note to your statement " "please no ehical responses".  

Mike, when you put your stuff out on the internet you do not get to control the answers you get.

Trinity

[Trinity4]

Actually, I think you answered your own question.  You know you're not supposed to drink on treatment so just don't do it.  The after math is it most likely it won't effect the results but just don't go that route anymore.  My no means am I encouraging drinking while treating but I have seen posts where some have continued to drink and still achieved SVR.   Don't think I've ever seen anyone post they attributed relapse to drinking while treating but you have to wonder how many would really be truthful about that.

Trinity

[Bill1954]

It’s been pretty well demonstrated that alcohol use combined with HCV significantly increases the rate of fibrotic progression of the liver. Plus, some studies have demonstrated that alcohol potentates the virus itself. With that said, I imagine the biggest problem with drinking alcohol while treating the HCV is compliance; folks that drink alcoholically tend to miss doses, prematurely terminate  therapy, etc. I’m not a doctor by any stretch, but it’s hard to imagine a couple of drunken nights out would seriously jeopardize outcome, assuming you continued to take your meds. Not much you’re going to do about it now anyway, other than learn from your errors, eh?

Good luck with sobriety as well as treatment outcome,

Bill

[Trish77]

Hi Mike,

The straight goods are that alcohol decreases the effectiveness of the interferon you're taking.  So when you drink, you're wasting some of that interferon you're injecting and it's not doing as good a job as it could be for you if you laid off the alcohol.  Your treatment should still be okay but not a great idea to keep taking chances with it by drinking alcohol.  No judgment there whatsoever, I'm hoping that gives you enough incentive to keep clean and sober.  

That's awesome that you're undetectable...you want to keep it that way.  Good luck with this, Mike.

Trish