Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

Antibodies to hepatitis C drew attention because of high morbidity to chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV was known to be transmitted by transfusion, sexual behavior and parenteral drug use. However some kind of autoimmune mechanism was suggested to be involved in the genesis of hCV-induced liver diseases. We hypothesized the prevalence of having anti-HCV might be higher in psychiatric patients rather than general population because of the characteristic route of transmission. Using Abbott HCV EIA kit, anti-HCV was detected in the sera of 113 psychiatric inpatients from early December in 1992 to late May in 1994. The positivity of anti-HCV was significantly(P<0.05) higher among psychiatric inpatients(10.6%) than in healthy controls(3.0%). There were no disease specificity among psychiatric inpatients who had anti-HCV, though alcoholics tened to have more anti-HCV. We couldn't find any significant correlation of anti-HCV with age, seasons of birth, lymphocytes(%) and liver function.

Keywords Psychiatric inpatients;Anti-HCV;Enzyme immunoassay.