A 25-Year Follow-Up Study of Drug Addicts Hospitalised for Acute Hepatitis: Present and Past Morbidity

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate present and past morbidity in drug addicts, 25 years after hospitalisation for acute hepatitis B or hepatitis nonA-nonB. The hospital records for 214 consecutively admitted patients were analysed, and a follow-up study on 66 of the 144 patients still alive was performed. At follow-up, 1 of 54 (1.8%) hepatitis B patients was still HBsAg positive. Twelve patients originally diagnosed as hepatitis nonA-nonB were all among 54 found to be anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) positive, and the total anti-HCV prevalence was 81.8%. Twelve (22.2%) of the HCV cases were unknown before the follow-up examination. Four (6.1%) participants were anti-human immunodeficiency virus positive, only 1 was on antiretroviral therapy, and none had developed AIDS. Other chronic somatic diseases were a minor problem, whereas drug users reported skin infections as a frequent complication. Forty-three patients (65%) had abandoned addictive drugs since the hospital stay. Serious mental disorders were reported by 19 patients (28.8%), and 17 (25.8%) regarded themselves as present (9) and former (8) compulsive alcohol drinkers. A large proportion of the participants were granted disability pension (39%), a majority because of psychiatric disorders, drug and alcohol abuse.

Drug addiction in hepatitis C patients leads to a lower quality of life

“…The original study sample included all patients admitted to our hospital for acute hepatitis B or non-AnonB hepatitis in the period 1972 Á/1976 and the description of these has been reported earlier (3,8); 145 patients still living in Oslo 25 years later were contacted and 108 responded positively to a follow-up examination. At the time of hospital admission in the 1970s, 66 of these were diagnosed with intravenous drug addiction and the remaining 42 reported no such problem.…”

“…In a previous study, we demonstrated that patients who admitted drug addiction when hospitalized for parenterally acquired hepatitis in the 1970s had a high prevalence of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection when examined 25 years later (8), whereas there was a low prevalence of CHC in another group of acute hepatitis patients, who had not admitted to any drug abuse in the 1970s.…”

Livskvalitet hos pasienter i legemiddelassistert rehabilitering

“…Artikkelen er basert på en studentoppgave (1) Opioidmisbrukere -saerlig de som injiserer heroin -har flere helseproblemer, redusert helserelatert livskvalitet og økt dødelighet i forhold til den generelle befolkning (2)(3)(4)(5)(6). Dette henger saerlig sammen med overdoser, skader, hiv, hepatitt B og C samt andre alvorlige infeksjoner (7)(8)(9).…”