Detecting Hepatitis C in Psychiatric Patients is More Efficient in a Psychiatric Hospital than in an Ambulatory Psychiatric Unit
REMY André-Jean, BOUCHKIRA Hakim, HAPPIETTE Arnaud.
Abstract
Introduction: For a long time, the systematic proposed
screening of hepatitis C in patients followed in psychiatric settings has been
recalled through successive expert reports. In France, just over 5,000 patients
a year are treated for hepatitis C while on the other side of the scale, 4,000
to 4,500 patients are contaminated or recontaminated, mainly by drug use,
intravenous or nasal. The objective of eradicating hepatitis C set in France
for 2025 will therefore not be achieved. The question is therefore to (re)find
the undiagnosed or unfollowed patients whose number is estimated at 75,000. The
question of screening more and better in psychiatric settings arises on a daily
basis for all health care providers.
Methodology: Since 2017, the mobile hepatitis team of
the Centre Hospitalier de Perpignan has been working in a psychiatric setting,
first at the Centre Hospitalier Spécialisé (CHS) in Thuir and more recently at
an ambulatory psychiatric unit called Centre Médico Psychologique (CMP) in
Perpignan. In this retrospective study, we wanted to compare the efficiency of
our actions in these two different psychiatric sites, for the number of HCV
screenings performed, patients positive for hepatitis C, patients treated and
FIBROSCAN (mobile) performed. The frequency of actions was identical in both
structures, half a day twice a month.
Results: The active queue of CHS was on average 1475
and that of CMP 1530 patients per year. The number of patients screened and treated
in CHS was higher than those treated in CMP.
Conclusion: In our experience, screening psychiatric
patients in CHS is more efficient than screening in CMP. This field study helps
to clarify the recommendations published in the 2023 expert report.