What are the common side effects of interferon therapy?
LISA CAPOLINO, RN: The most common side effects of interferon injections are the flu-like symptoms: fever, chills, muscle aches, shakes, difficulty sleeping. But we do have many different treatments now to help with the side effects such as acetaminophen or naproxen or we could give prednisone prior to the injection. And those medications all help alleviate the side effects. Are the side effects permanent? LISA CAPOLINO, RN: Over time, the side effects of the interferon therapy do decrease and eventually, for most patients, they subside altogether. What we can do, in the meantime, is we will start a patient on a low dose of interferon and very slowly increase it, depending upon how they tolerate it. JUSTINE WHEATLEY, RN: Over the past few years, we’ve really decreased the amount of flu-like symptoms that people have had by giving them a really good titration system. So they start off on a low amount, working up to full dose in their own time. Therefore, giving them a sense they’re in c
