title: Comparison of the prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidities in hepatitis C patients and hepatitis B patients in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hepatitis C is a major health concern world-wide and is frequently associated with psychiatric co-morbidity. The most common genotype in Saudi Arabia differs from genotypes prevalent elsewhere and thus we aimed to determine if psychiatric disturbances occur in Saudi patients infected with hepatitis C and whether these symptoms extend to those infected with hepatitis B.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected from hepatitis C and hepatitis B patients using the general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and The Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaires. Tinnitus patients served as control subjects. The Chi-square test was used to examine the relationship between categorical variables. Continuous variables were compared using the Student's t-test or the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test for skewed data, and correlations were evaluated by calculating Spearman's rho. The odds ratio was used to determine the association between variables and the likelihood of being a psychiatric case.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hepatitis C patients were twice as likely to be labeled as a psychiatric case compared with hepatitis B patients ( P = 0.01). Age and gender were not predictive factors though there was a non-significant tendency toward a higher prevalence of psychiatric cases among females. Hepatitis C patients also scored lower than hepatitis B patients in 3 domains of the SF-36 questionnaire, indicating a greater reduction in quality of life (QoL).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrate an increased incidence of psychiatric symptoms in Saudi Arabian hepatitis C patients compared to hepatitis B patients and controls. This highlights the importance of collaboration between hepatologists and psychiatrists in order to improve the QoL in this patient group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. yrsh@ksu.edu.sa
authors.forename: Yaser R
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: AlHuthail
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires