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Interferon induced depression?

I wonder if anyone knows the favored (latest) serotonin reuptake drugs for this problem. I can only find 2006 material online. Surly there ie newer safer better 7 years on.

Best

Pete
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1840891 tn?1431547793
There are multiple opinions out there. I suffer chronic depression and have been on Zoloft for years, but when I was preparing to start triple tx with Incivek my doctors first made me change my antidepressant to Cymbalta. Not everyone thinks there is a problem with Zoloft, but one of my doctors was concerned just because it is closely related to another AD that can cause a problem, so out of extreme caution I had to change. I preferred Zoloft, and returned to it as soon as I finished the Incivek stage of tx.

I realize I didn't really answer your question but I wanted to convey the idea that there may not be a consensus yet on which are the best to use during tx.
The Cymbalta did work and didn't interact with the meds, but others here were specifically given Zoloft to use during triple tx, so it's probably okay too. Good luck!
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3230925 tn?1397615965
I suffered from depression throughout my treatment,it took two weeks after my last interferon shot for the, depression to be completely.Mind you my depression wasn't  to the point where I wanted to kill myself or kill anyone.I didn't want to do any extra meds so I toughed it out.Try taking lots of vitamin D3 it helps with depression and improves SVR rates.
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Avatar universal
hi my hubby suffers from depression as done for many years and interferon does make it worse he is on metazipine and they seem to help but it takes about 6wks for them to start working properly maybe doc could give you some short term ones to help you through the worse good luck
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Avatar universal
thanks for your very informative reply

Pete
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Avatar universal
Thanks Danny

I've been taking D3 for a nearly the whole tx.

best to you

Pete
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Avatar universal
I took Celexa from about 5 weeks into treatment and stopped when I was finished with the incivek. It was a huge help. I'm in my 20 th week and in the darkest days I never thought I would get here. It's a personal decision, obviously, if you want to swallow one more pill. I was glad I did and frankly my family was glad as well.
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Avatar universal
I am in my second round of treatment.  Did interferon alone about 15 yrs ago and sufferred with depression throughout.  This time I started Paxil about 3 months befor treatment.  It is working pretty well with a few bad days thrown in.
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766573 tn?1365166466
I think it's like Ceanothus says. There are many and it really depends on the individual

I'm not sure about the "latest" or most preferred but I think the one I hear most often for use as a "prophylactic" (and the one that was suggested I try) is Lexapro (Escitalopram) ~ supposedly because it is the "cleanest."

http://firstwatch.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2012/717/4

I did not respond well to that medication. At all.

(dual therapy with pegylated interferon alfa-2a)


In fact I think (think) this is the outcome:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21034680

Of this study:
Efficacy and Safety of Escitalopram for Prevention of Depression Induced by Peg-Interferon in Hepatitis C Patients
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00166296

since they both have the clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00166296.

CONCLUSIONS:
Findings do not support the use of an antidepressant to prevent interferon-induced depression during the first 12 weeks of treatment in chronic hepatitis C patients at low psychiatric risk. Future studies should be directed to subpopulations of patients at high psychiatric risk.
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