Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 28, 2015; 7(15): 1921-1935
Published online Jul 28, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i15.1921
Psychiatric and substance use disorders co-morbidities and hepatitis C: Diagnostic and treatment implications
Peter Hauser, Shira Kern
Peter Hauser, VISN 22 Network Office, Long Beach, CA 90822, United States
Peter Hauser, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, United States
Peter Hauser, Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, United States
Peter Hauser, Shira Kern, VA Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach, CA 90822, United States
Author contributions: Hauser P and Kern S are the sole contributors to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors claim no conflict of interest at this time.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Peter Hauser, MD, VISN 22 Network Offices, 300 Oceangate Avenue, Suite 700, Long Beach, CA 90822, United States. peter.hauser2@va.gov
Telephone: +1-562-8268000-2629 Fax: +1-562-8262221
Received: January 25, 2015
Peer-review started: January 26, 2015
First decision: March 6, 2015
Revised: June 21, 2015
Accepted: June 30, 2015
Article in press: July 2, 2015
Published online: July 28, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatitis C viral (HCV) is among the most common blood-borne viral infections in the world. Although disease management strategies are often complicated by the high rate of psychiatric and substance use disorders (SUDs) within this population, studies now indicate that neuropsychiatric side effects can be effectively managed during antiviral therapy and that individuals with pre-existing psychiatric and SUDs can be treated successfully and achieve sustained virologic response. Furthermore, the development of new medication options for the treatment of HCV has provided additional opportunities for treatment of people with HCV who have - or are at risk for - psychiatric illness.