Neuropsychiatric dysfunction in patients with chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis

Aim:  The aim of this study is to clarify the cerebral functions in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) as well as those with liver cirrhosis (LC). Methods:  We studied 58 patients with CH (20 in fibrosis stage F1, 20 in F2, 18 in F3), 77 with LC (46 rated as Child–Pugh class A, 24 as B, 7 as C), and 20 healthy volunteers (HV). Computer‐aided quantitative neuropsychiatric function test systems, including eight neuropsychiatric tests were performed. Results:  Subjects with results over the cut‐off value for healthy subjects ranged from 11.1–28.6% in CH and 19.5–36.4% in LC. The percentages with abnormality in at least one test in CH and LC were 72.4% and 80.6%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in the HV group (35.0%) ( P  = 0.003, P  = 0.0003, respectively). Among CH subjects, those with three or more abnormal results in the F1, F2 and F3 subgroups were 15.0%, 20.0% and 38.9%, respectively. Among LC subjects, those with three or more abnormal results in the Child–Pugh class A, B and C subgroups comprised 30.4%, 50.0% and 57.1%, respectively. The rate in the CH F3 subgroup ( P  = 0.011) and in all three LC subgroups ( P  = 0.023, P  = 0.001, P  = 0.002, respectively) were significantly higher than that in the HV group. Conclusion:  The percentage of patients with neuropsychiatric function impairment was high in both LC and CH, especially in stage F3. Neuropsychiatric dysfunction may initiate in CH in a considerable number of patients.