Interferon does cause depression in some patients taking it, but not all. In my case, the virus I caught seemed to induce depression, and so I would be a little wary of taking interferon myself, given that the virus created this propensity to depression.
Having said that, I am looking into trying
Russian interferon alpha suppositories, which are extremely cheap in comparison to interferon injections.
In his ME/CFS
study, Dr Chia used subcutaneous injections of 3 million IU of interferon alpha-2B, given to patients three times a week, for 2 to 6 months. Dr Chia said the cost of such interferon treatment was around $5,000 a month in the US. So that works out to one dose of interferon at 3 million IU costing around $400.
Whereas Russian suppositories containing 1 million IU of interferon alpha-2B cost around $5 each.
So I am thinking of trying Russian interferon alpha suppositories, but I am concerned with the possible depression side effect.
In Dr Chia's interferon studies, some patients were put into full remission for up to 14 months, but all patients treated eventually relapsed. But that may be because they did not keep taking the interferon indefinitely, but just took a course of interferon, and then stopped taking it.
Note that Dr Chia in his above study found interferon was effective for ME/CFS patients with coxsackievirus B3 or coxsackievirus B5. But in his presentation at the
Invest in ME 2009 London Conference at timecode 42:31 says that interferon does not work for coxsackievirus B4:
This may mean interferon will not work for me, as I have active coxsackievirus B4 infection.
As well as being much less expensive that interferon injections, interferon suppositories also have advantage of not creating anti-interferon antibodies even in long term use. Ref:
1 The problem with long term interferon injections is that after many months of treatment, anti-interferon antibodies can form, thereafter rendering the interferon ineffective.
Interferon suppositories are available at several pharmacies that specialize in Russian products:
otc-online-store.com
Search for interferon
medicinesdelivery.com
Genferon suppositories
Viferon suppositories
rupharma.com
Genferon suppositories
Search for interferon
farmacy-houses.com
Viferon suppositories
wmmedicalsupply.com
Search for interferon
pilloid.com
Search for interferon
pillbuys.com
Genferon suppositories
Roferon-A
Kipferon suppositories
Viferon suppositories
cosmicnootropic.com
Search for interferon
buy-pharm.com (not the same as the well-known
www.buy-pharma.md)
Search for interferon
mysalve.com
Search for interferon
shopmybuy.com
Search for interferon
It's worth searching these pharmacies under for the brand names like Viferon and Genferon too, as sometimes these products do not appear in the results for of a search for "interferon".
Cost for 10 interferon suppositories of 1 million IU is typically around $50.
If the interferon suppositories did cure my ME/CFS, I would not stop taking them. I would continue to take them on a maintenance dose indefinitely, to ensure my ME/CFS never came back. The suppositories are cheap and easy enough to take indefinitely.
Rectally administered interferon routes itself into the body via the lymph system. Ref:
1 I am not sure about how interferon suppositories compare to interferon injections in terms of potency, though. Presumably the bioavailability is lower when administered by rectal suppository.
