Study: Hepatitis C drugs may help treat PTSD

By Alice Clifford via SWNS

Hepatitis C drugs could be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, according to new research from Boston University.

The study shows that specific medication used to treat the Hep C virus improves symptoms of the debilitating stress-related illness

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness caused by experiencing trauma. It can lead to long-term depression, anxiety, eating disorders and prompt suicidal thoughts.

PTSD is estimated to affect about one in every three people who suffer a traumatic experience, but it's not clear exactly why some people develop the condition and others do not

However, despite it being so common, there are only two approved medications in the US to treat it. Both of which have shown limited effectiveness.

The treatments, paroxetine and sertraline, are types of antidepressants.

Study senior author Dr. Jaimie Gradus said: “Many people have PTSD, but there are few effective pharmacologic treatments and limited drug development for PTSD.”

Currently, the most common treatment is psychotherapy.

Dr. Gradus, Associate Professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) said: “Existing effective treatments are mostly psychotherapy, and while they work well, there are also issues with them, including a lot of treatment drop-out and they’re time intensive.

“So adding to the suite of treatment options for people is a high priority.”

In recent years there has been a surge in research for PTSD treatment.

Co-principal investigator Dr. Brian Shiner said: “There really has been a lot of interest in finding new medication for PTSD in the field.”

The disorder is most common among military veterans, with more than 10 percent of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, patients showing PTSD symptoms.

The new study delved into previous research published in the journal, Biological Psychiatry, which monitored VA patients and found that medication used to treat Hepatitis C, a virus that affects the liver, could treat PTSD symptoms.

The research, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, used the same VA patients as the previous study, but only used those with Hepatitis C.

In total, there were 254 patients who had been diagnosed with PTSD and Hepatitis C who took part.

The researchers tested three different Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Hepatitis C medications.

Each patient received one type of treatment and their symptoms were monitored during 8-12 weeks.

The researchers also took into consideration influential factors such as opioid prescription use, diagnosed liver disease and history of psychiatric crises.

Of the three different medications tested, the combination of glecaprevir and pibrentasvir, or GLE/PIB, was the most effective.

Dr. Gradus said: “The level of improvement we see for GLE/PIB is impressive and over twice what we have seen for paroxetine and sertraline.”

The team, from the Boston University School of Public Health and the White River Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Vermont, now plans to develop their research further.

Dr. Gradus said: “I think we have done the best we can with medical records data.

“An important next step in this line of work will be a prospective placebo-controlled study in patients without Hepatitis C.”

Dr. Shiner said: “We recently received funding from the Department of Defence to study GLE/PIB as a potential treatment for PTSD in a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial."

This will involve treating patients with either the GLE/PIB medication or an inactive drug to see how much of an effect it has.

Dr. Shiner added: “It will be several years until we see the results, but this is a very exciting case where we used VA patient data to identify a potential treatment for PTSD, which is a very important problem for veterans’ health.

“In this way, veterans have informed PTSD treatment development.”