Sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings in interferon-alpha treated hepatitis C patients – Pilot Study

Mood and brain serotonin functioning changes with interferon treatment in hepatitis C patients. 1) Mood changes will be assessed by: a computerised psychiatric diagnostic programme will also be administered; the CIS-R (Lewis et al., 1992) is a computerised interview schedule that establishes the nature and severity of neurotic symptoms experienced over the previous 7 days and identifies the presence of neurosis. Additional rating scales will be taken. Mood: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Anxiety: Spielberger state anxiety inventory (SSAI) and Panic State Inventory (PSI). Irritability: Spielberger state anger expression inventory (STAXI) and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS-each category is measured on 100mm line, anchored from 0: ‘‘not at all’’ to 100: “the most ever”). Sleep: Bristol Sleep Profile, short clinical interview to elicit any sleep disorder. Brain serotonin functioning will be measured by changes in sleep electroencephalogram architecture: priamary measures are reduced rapid eye movement latency and increased sleep fragmentation. Secondary measures will be: increased rapid eye movement percentage of sleep, reduced stage 2 sleep 2) The study duration will be approximately 7 weeks; one week prior to staring interferon and after six weeks of interferon treatment.Each assessment lasts for approximately 1.5-2hours for the questionnaires and computer programing. The sleep EEG recording runs overnight (approximately 8 hours) for each assessment session. In addition psychiatric diagnosis will be collected for all patients the treating team feel may be suffering from a psychiatric illness for the duration of their interferon treatment (usually six or twelve months).