Guidelines

Guiding Principles
• Assess every patient for depressive symptoms before starting hepatitis C therapy and during each visit while on therapy for at least the first 12 weeks.

• Adopt a systematic approach for assessing and monitoring depression. Don't wait for your patient to complain.

• Supplement your clinical assessment skills by using a standard, validated tool to measure depressive symptoms.

• Educate patients and their families about depressive symptoms and the importance of informing the provider if they occur.

• Make good use of referrals and consultative opportunities for patients with complicated or severe depression, or when therapy is unsuccessful.

• Involve the patient in management of depression by suggesting simple things to relieve the distress of depressive symptoms.

• Acknowledge that interferon therapy can be difficult. Encourage adherence to the therapy by promptly addressing side effects, including depression.

• Provide positive feedback to encourage the patient to continue therapy while you work to control depression.

• Address sleep and pain problems.