Introduction: the goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients with non-affective psychotic disorders and to compare it with population-based data.
Material and methods: an observational study was performed that measured anti-HCV antibodies (HCV-RNA in case of seropositivity) in 425 serum samples from patients with non-affective psychosis. Eight patients were positive for anti-HCV (1.9 %) and five had detectable HCV-RNA (1.2 %). The prevalence of viremia was significantly higher than in the general population (OR: 5.4; 95 % CI: 1.9-14.6).
Conclusions: patients with non-affective psychotic disorder have a higher prevalence of active infection than that of the general population and should undergo systematic screening.