Early prediction of major depression in chronic hepatitis C patients during peg-interferon α-2b treatment by assessment of vegetative-depressive symptoms after four weeks

Table 1 Characteristics at baseline of chronic hepatitis C patients infected by substance use in a Belgian population eligible for treatment in a randomised trial

Characteristics at baseline	n	Thrice in wk 3 MIU interferon	Weekly pegylated interferon	Total	Wilcoxon rank sum test or fishers exact test
Age at baseline (yr)	49	37	37	37	0.99
At exposure (yr)	49	27	28	27	0.55
At infection (yr)	49	33	36	35	0.58
Body mass index	33	25	25	25	0.93
Genotype (%)
-non 2-3	25	73	36	53	0.02a
-5	22	27	64	47
Gender (%)
F	11	26	19	22	0.73
M	38	74	81	78
Methadone user (%)	49	39	35	37	0.77
Drug user active (%)	48	59	54	56	0.77
IVDU (%)	49	91	92	92	1.00
Activity1
A0 + 1	40	81	96	89	0.17
A2 + 3	5	19	4	11
Fibrosis1
F0 + 1	20	38	50	44	0.19
F2 + 3	22	48	50	49
-F4	3	14	0	7
Steatosis1
S0	20	40	52	47	0.73
S1	12	30	26	28
S2 + 3	11	30	22	26
ASAT at baseline (IU/L)	49	59	77	68	0.2098
ALAT at baseline (IU/L)	49	87	127	108	0.0635

IVDU: Intravenous drug users; ASAT: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALAT: Alanine aminotransferase.

¹According to metavir score for liver biopsy.

^aP < 0.05 between genotype-2-3 and non 2-3.