Robaeys G, Bie JD, Ranst MV, Buntinx F. An extremely rare case of delusional parasitosis in a chronic hepatitis C patient during pegylated interferon alpha-2b and ribavirin treatment. World J Gastroenterol 2007; 13(16): 2379-2380 [PMID: 17511042 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i16.2379]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dr. Geert Robaeys, Ziekenhuis Oost Limburg, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Schiepse Bos 6, B 3600 Genk, Belgium. geert.robaeys@zol.be
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
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World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2007; 13(16): 2379-2380 Published online Apr 28, 2007. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i16.2379
An extremely rare case of delusional parasitosis in a chronic hepatitis C patient during pegylated interferon alpha-2b and ribavirin treatment
Geert Robaeys, Jozef De Bie, Marc Van Ranst, Frank Buntinx
Geert Robaeys, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Ziekenhuis Oost Limburg, Genk, Belgium
Jozef De Bie, Department of Psychiatry, Ziekenhuis Oost Limburg, Genk, Belgium
Marc Van Ranst, Laboratory of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute and University Hospitals, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Frank Buntinx, Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium and Department of General Practice, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Dr. Geert Robaeys, Ziekenhuis Oost Limburg, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Schiepse Bos 6, B 3600 Genk, Belgium. geert.robaeys@zol.be
Telephone: +32-89-326505 Fax: +32-89-327916
Received: January 29, 2007 Revised: February 23, 2006 Accepted: March 1, 2007 Published online: April 28, 2007
Abstract
During treatment of chronic hepatitis C patients with interferon and ribavirin, a lot of side effects are described. Twenty-three percent to 44% of patients develop depression. A minority of patients evolve to psychosis. To the best of our knowledge, no cases of psychogenic parasitosis occurring during interferon therapy have been described in the literature. We present a 49-year-old woman who developed a delusional parasitosis during treatment with pegylated interferon alpha-2b weekly and ribavirin. She complained of seeing parasites and the larvae of fleas in her stools. This could not be confirmed by any technical examination. All the complaints disappeared after stopping pegylated interferon alpha-2b and reappeared after restarting it. She had a complete sustained viral response.
