← Return to Post Interferon Syndrome

Discussion

Post Interferon Syndrome

Infectious Diseases | Last Active: May 4 4:08pm | Replies (513)

Comment receiving replies
@lhowell

I'm writing for the first time on this site. I'm beginning to wonder if my husband may be suffering from post-interferon/ribavirin dementia? He was diagnosed with dementia at age 57. He is now on disability and I'm caring for him.

He completed a course of interferon/ribavirin in approximately 2004 for hepatitis C. He was on that treatment for 6-9 months. He had all the side effects of the treatment like depression, brain fog, flu-like symptoms, etc. After he got off the treatment most things seemed to fade, but I noticed things had changed in his demeanor. He was often more depressed and irritable that he had been before. At the time of his treatment he was a financial manager for a car dealership. After treatment he really struggled with his job. In 2007/2008 he had 9 different jobs. He saw the doctor and had a head CT and nothing was out of the ordinary (no masses/lesions). We finally got him in to see a neurologist in approximately 2012? who did the mini-mental exam in the office. My husband didn't do well at all on the test, but the doctor (who was awful) didn't give any reason for my husband's cognition issues. He suggested a follow-up in a year. We finally found a different neurologist a couple of years later and he was seen again and this neurologist suggested a neuropsychologic exam. It took several months to get him in to be seen. He finally had that exam in early 2017. It was a very detailed report, but in the end he was found to have a neurocognitive disorder. My husband had to quit trying for jobs in the car business and just drove for Uber after that. In 2019 he had a followup neuropsych exam. At that time there was severe decline and was found to have dementia. He received SSDI after that.

There has never been any reason given for this. No family history. I've looked for reasons to explain this for years, when I ran across an article about post-interferon/ribavirin treatment syndrome. Is this a possibility with my husband? It's seems very likely to me..

Jump to this post


Replies to "I'm writing for the first time on this site. I'm beginning to wonder if my husband..."

We’re working on a class action…Lords will, pls private message me