VIDEO: New interventions may soon treat alcohol-related hepatitis, expert says
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In this Healio video exclusive, Steven L. Flamm, MD, chief of the hepatology program at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, discusses the rise in alcohol-related hepatitis during COVID-19, as well as promising new treatment options.
April is Alcohol Awareness Month, and Flamm, who also is professor of medicine at Northwestern, detailed symptoms of alcohol-related hepatitis, which may include marked fatigue, jaundice, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, massive swelling and reduced mentation. The mortality rate with an acute presentation — even in young patients — can exceed 50% in 1 to 3 months.
According to Flamm, alcohol-related hepatitis is very common, and rates dramatically increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have resulted from relationship, work, medical or financial stress.
Flamm noted that there are not many therapeutic options available for patients with alcohol-related hepatitis, and corticosteroids have limited efficacy. However, new therapeutics are currently being investigated, and some have shown promise in early trials.
“We continue to be hopeful that this active research program will lead to new interventions that are efficacious and safe for patients that have alcohol-related hepatitis, because it is a very, very serious unmet medical need,” Flamm said.
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Christina Lindenmeyer, MD
In this video, Steven L. Flamm, MD, discusses the broad spectrum of alcohol-related liver disease and implications surrounding the evolving epidemiology of this condition.
The most serious presentation of this disorder is acute alcohol-related hepatitis, which can be characterized by jaundice, encephalopathy (decreased mentation), swelling and bleeding. Severe acute alcohol-related hepatitis is frequently associated with critical illness, with mortality rates exceeding 50% in 1 to 3 months.
Despite a clear recognition of the association between alcohol use and serious liver injury, Flamm emphasizes that the rates of alcohol-related liver disease are clearly on the rise and temporally linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reasons behind the recent dramatic increase in cases remain unclear, though theoretically may be related to the rise in people working from home, as well as relationship, financial and/or medical stressors.
Despite the demand for effective therapies for acute alcohol-related hepatitis, treatment options are regrettably lacking. Corticosteroids, though widely studied, are now thought by many to play a limited role in the management of this critical illness. This unmet need has prompted the development of novel therapeutics, several of which have demonstrated promising efficacy and safety in early trials. The hope is that robust research will prompt the discovery of durable interventions to better serve the vulnerable patients who battle this life-threatening disease.
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