I'm HIV/HCV (genotye 2) coinfected. I started Ribavirin and Pegayas Jan 09. I was already on and tolerating Istentress and Truvada for the HIV. I've started becoming very irritable and aggressive to others. My doc says this is the Pegasys and has prescribed Lorazepam 4mg per day to help calm me down, all this is doing is making me drowsy in the day, clumsy and I keep walking into things. Is there anything you prescribe your patients to try and counter the nasty Pegasys side effects rather than stop treatment? I really don't want to stop treatment otherwise the past few months have been for nothing. Many thanks for your time and help from the uk, mark j.

I know that some of the psychiatrists I work with have used mood stabilizers (eg, wellbutrin and others) for symptoms of the nature you describe. You will want to discuss referral to psychiatry with your physician right away so you can hopefully continue therapy.

The other thing you may consider is checking your HCV RNA. If it is non-detectable, maybe you can dose-reduce your interferon dosing a bit.