Hep, Depression and Anxiety

While hepetitis may not create its own form of anxiety, certainly having hepetitis can result in anxiety. Indeed, "data suggest that anxiety disorders are not a specific consequence of CHC, but rather reflect the stress associated with the awareness of a chronic progressive disease."

While clients may suffer from this chronic disease, doctors don't seem to recognize the seriousness of the symptoms, or want to say other conditions are creating the anxiety, the depression, or the fatigue. So when a client presents, distressed and wanting treatment, the doctor may deny the client their much needed treatment out of concern for the secondary psychiatric symptoms. Yet depression and anxiety plague the population who also has Hepetitis C. Indeed, research shows that:

These limitations notwithstanding, the prevalence of psychiatric disorders is likely to be higher in patients with hepatitis C than the general population given the major routes of transmission for this virus.

So the very conditions of stress and anxiety that lead people into self medication and drug addiction may be what prevents their eventual treatment for Hepetitis C. Indeed, a recent study showed that "between 26% and 34% of hepatitis C-positive patients in this study met criteria for mood, anxiety, or personality disorders." So my client's anxiety gets hightened even more because they cannot receive treatment for their hepetitis C because the medications used can increase depression and anxiety. Hmmm.... I think my anxiety and depression would go through the roof from lack of treatment!