Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in patients with chronic mental disorders: The relevance of dual disorders

Abstract

SchizophreniaAbstractObjective: The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is higher in people with psychi-atric disorders compared to the general population. In addition, patients with severe mentalillness are frequently affected by substance abuse, which increases the risk of blood-borne viralinfections. Epidemiological studies in samples of hospitalised individuals with chronic mentaldisorders and dual diagnosis (DD) are lacking. The objective of this study was to investigate theprevalence of HCV infection in a sample of in-patients with severe mental illness.Patients and methods: This was a retrospective observational study. All patients meeting selec-tion criteria admitted to the Medium-Term Psychiatric Unit of the University of SalamancaHealth Care Complex between 2007 and 2018 were included. The primary endpoint was theprevalence of HCV infection. The secondary endpoint comprised the characteristics influencingthe occurrence of HCV infection in these patients.