As with any medication, side effects are reported with the treatments used for hepatitis B. Many of these are mild and can be managed with simple remedies but some may be more serious or persistent.¹

With some treatments, severe side effects can be uncomfortable or hazardous or can interfere significantly with your normal day to day routine. These complications may stop you from taking the full dose or full course of treatment, which will mean that treatment is less likely to be effective.¹

If you want to stop treatment because of side effects always talk to your doctor first. He or she may advise you to switch treatments or treat the side effects. Your doctor can advise on the best ways to manage your case. Stopping and re-starting medicines is more likely to compromise treatment outcomes. Once you start anti-viral treatment you need to continue with it for as long as your doctor advises.¹

How Treatment May Impact You

The impact on your lifestyle will depend on which treatment you receive. Treatment with interferon requires frequent injections (1 or 3 times weekly) for a finite period of time.¹ Side effects with interferons can sometimes be severe.² Treatment with nucleoside analogs (NA) usually involves taking a tablet each day for a long period, often many years.¹ Side effects tend to be milder than with interferons. Using some NAs may require routine kidney function monitoring.³

No matter which treatment you begin, once you start on treatment it is important to go for regular check-ups, both to check for side effects and also to ensure that treatment is working.¹ Regular appointments play an essential part in keeping you as healthy as possible.

Managing the Impact

In order to reduce the risk of progressive damage to the liver it is important to stay generally healthy and avoid some things that could interfere with your treatment. The following will help your body to work with the treatment to fight the infection and help you to manage unpleasant side-effects:²

• Plenty of rest and good sleep
• A healthy diet
• Regular exercise
• Avoiding cigarettes and alcohol as much as possible (there is a possibility that these might cause further damage to the liver)^4,5

There are certain factors to consider when starting treatment, some of which are included below:

• Learning about and improving your understanding of chronic hepatitis B: this will help you appreciate the benefits of treatment and the importance of taking your medication regularly.
• Finding ways to fit your medicines into your routine, such as diaries or charts, alarms on your mobile phone, fixed dose boxes or dosette boxes to deliver a marked daily dose (talk to your pharmacist about these devices).
• Making sure someone else in the family knows what you should be taking and when, and can help to prompt you.
• Learning about side effects – what to expect and how to deal with them – will help reduce the urge to abandon treatment if you are having problems.
• Working to develop your relationship with your professional healthcare team: this will help you if you have problems with your medicines. Make sure you don’t miss clinic appointments. Keep a list of contact details/helpline numbers if there are issues you want to talk through.
• Join a patient support group.
• Don’t panic if you miss a dose – make sure you know what to do or who to talk to about it.