Payesh
Year:2008 | Volume:7 | Issue:4|Papers Count:11

Objective(s): To determine the demographic and socioeconomic factors influencing the use of herbal remedies/medicinal herbs among the general population in Tehran, Iran.Methods: Data including demographic, educational status, paid employment, area of residence, weighted asset index (calculated by weighting 16 assets), ethnicity/religion and the use of herbal remedies/medicinal herbs were collected for a sample of 4722 individuals aged 15 and over living in Tehran, Iran.Results: Using multiple logistic regression analysis in results showed that the use of herbal remedies/medicinal herbs was lower in male than female and in never-married persons than in married or widowed/divorced. There was no association between the use of herbal remedies/medicinal herbs with age, educational status, paid employment, area of residence, having insurance, asset index or ethnicity/religion.Conclusion: It seems that the current pattern of use of herbal remedies/medicinal herbs is similar to the pattern of healthcare utilization; however it is not influenced by having insurance, educational or economic status.

Objective(s): To assess the herbalists’ knowledge about characteristics of herbal medicine in Tehran, Iran.Methods: A questionnaire containing 52 false/true phrases was designed. 206 herbalists have been chosen by cluster random sampling (in 34 clusters) and were interviewed by 5 educated interviewers.Results: Total score of herbalists’ knowledge was 48.8±2.02. The knowledge regarding the “drug preparing methods” was the highest (71.8%) and minimum score was related to “morphology of herbal drugs” (34.3%). There was a positive correlation between years of experience and total scores (P=0.008, Spearman’s r =0.19). Total scores in college-educated people were significantly higher than other groups (P<0.001). The scores for people who were participated in “educational courses” was significantly higher than who reported “mentorship training” or other methods as their training methods (P=0.009).Conclusion: The results of this study showed the inadequacy of knowledge of some herbalists about herbal medicine. Improving herbalists’ knowledge by educational interventions and monitoring their work by the health administrator organizations would be effective in improving the quality of herbalists’ services and making the use of herbal medicines much more logical.

Objective(s): To determine the prevalence, scope, and diversity of medical education in complementary / alternative Medicine (CAM) and to offer clear goals and concrete suggestions for incorporating CAM therapies as an integral part of medical curriculum.Methods: The information for this review was compiled by searching the Pub Med and MEDLINE databases looking for articles published until 1 September 2006. Only articles published in English were considered.The search terms included keywords "complementary and alternative medicine" combined with "medical education", and "medical curriculum". Full texts of articles were obtained and their references were checked for additional data when appropriate.Results: Public interests in and use of CAM modalities has grown markedly over the last decade. Increased use of CAM has made it necessary that the topic be included in medical education from the preclinical years through residency and beyond. There has been progress in this direction in recent years, with a steady increase in the number of medical schools that include CAM therapies in their curricula. There, remains, however, a lack of clear goals and objective suggestions for implementing these changes. There is tremendous heterogeneity and diversity in content, format and requirements among courses in CAM.Conclusion: An initiative with administrative and institutional support is necessary to incorporate CAM therapies as an integral part of the medical curriculum.

Objective (s): To assess TCAM in medical theses during the recent 15 years in medical schools of Tehran, Iran. Methods: All medical theses in 4 main medical schools (Iran, Shahid Beheshti, Shahed and Tehran medical schools) registered during 1991-2006 were assessed to find subjects related to TCAM. Theses were evaluated regarding the type of study, grade/ specialty of author and type of TCAM.Results: In all, 28344 medical theses have been registered during the study period. Of these, 110 theses (3.88 per 1000) were related to TCAM. There was a statistically significant increasing trend in the proportion of TCAM subjects (P<0.001 ،X2 for trends=42.7). Among the TCAM studies, 37.3 percent were related to clinical aspects. The proportion of clinical topics was significantly higher for specialized degrees than the general medicine (P<0.001).Conclusion: Even though there was an increasing trend during recent years, the proportion of TCAM subjects was relatively low. Re-orienting medical students could play an important role in increasing the production of scientific evidences on the topic.

Objective(s): To assess the efficacy and safety of ginger (rhizome of Zingiber officinale) to reduce severity of nausea and numbers of vomiting in early pregnancy.Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL and SID databases were searched for relevant sources. Randomized trials of oral ginger in comparison with placebo for nausea and/or vomiting in early pregnancy were selected. Two reviewers assessed the trial quality and extracted the data independently. Five trials met the inclusion criteria to assess the efficacy. Results: Based on these trials, there was a significant reduction in severity of nausea after taking ginger compared with placebo (Pooled SMD= 0.882, 90% confidence interval 0.267 to 1.496). Also there was similar effect in reducing number of vomiting (Pooled SMD= 0.631, 90% confidence interval 0.433 to 0.829). In addition, there were 5 trials or observational studies which had assessed the potential fetomaternal side effects of ginger. There was no supporting evidence for increasing pregnancy complications after using Ginger.Conclusion: Based on the current evidences, Ginger reduces the severity of nausea and frequency of vomiting in early pregnancy. There are considerations about adverse effects, but they are not supported by the clinical evidence. It seems that ginger could be used during pregnancy in therapeutic doses (almost 1 gr per day) for limited durations.

Objective(s): This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of CAM use in Tehran, Iran.Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out on 6148 citizens of Tehran by cluster sampling. A questionnaires which were tested for validity and reliability in a pilot study, was used to collect data. The prevalence of use, number of methods, the costs and type of diseases were asked.Results: Prayer(94.7%), herbal remedies (94.5%), Hajamat (90.8%) and Hydrotherapy (86.9%) were the most familiar and chiropractic (4.3%), pressure therapy (6.2%), homeopathy (10.3%) were the most unfamiliar reported methods by the study sample. Also, herbal remedies (54.6%) and prayer (24.2%) were the most prevalent and pressure therapy (0.3%), chiropractic (0.4%) and hypnotism (0.5%0 were the least prevalent methods were using by people. The supreme satisfaction was in yuga/meditation, traditional medicine and hydrotherapy. The most common reasons of selection of the CAM methods were successful past experiences of CAM, no response to conventional medicine and lower side effects of CAM. The most chief complaints were gastric and abdominal pain or discomfort, anxiety and other psychological disorders, cough and dyspnea. Peppermint (45.5%), borage (golgavzaban) (24.6%), chartokhmeh (7.9%) and oregano (avishan) (5.9%) were the most common plants have been used. Blood clotting disorders,low back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders, cutaneous disorders in hejamat and headache, musculoskeletal disorders and neuropsychological disorders in other CAM methods were the most common reason to apply. Conclusion: About half of the citizens in Tehran use at least one method of CAM at 1 year before the study. Prayer and herbal remedies were the most common methods have been applied. There is need to plan educational programs for people and train some experts in CAM to use and practice CAM in a more safer and effective way.

Objective(s): Intercessory prayer (IP) is one of the newly recognized holistic treatment methods and its effectiveness has been documented on the management of different diseases such as coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and infertility. This study aims to determine its effectiveness on ferritin and blood indices of major thalassemic patients.Methods: This was an interventional study assessing seven patients attending an outpatient clinic receiving IP in addition to their routine treatment.Results: In all IP was performed 5.86 times for each patient as close-laying of hands and 6 times as remote IP. Before the study, the mean hemoglobin was 9.7 mg/dl, which increased to 10.8 afterwards (P=0.028). Mean serum ferritin was 2246.8 before the intervention which decreased to 1680.8 afterwards. Blood transfusion interval doubled in four patients. Dizziness and fatigue, which were reported by two patients before intervention, disappeared afterwards. Three patients reported an improvement in their school performance after the study.Conclusion: This pilot study showed that intercessory prayer was effective in increasing hemoglobin and transfusion interval, decreasing ferritin and improving school performance in patients with major thalassemia. A larger randomized trial is suggested to confirm the results.

Objective(s): To determine the effect of continuous acupressure at P6.applied by Sea –Bands with acupressure buttons on the frequency and severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy during the 8-20 weeks.Methods: A two-group quasi-experimental posttest-only and posttest-repeated measure in seventeen medical clinics or offices in southern Tehran was carried out. A convenience sample of Persian-speaking; healthily pregnant women in their 8-20 weeks of pregnancy; who had at least one episode of nausea, vomiting, or both before their prenatal clinic/ office visit where they were recruited. The women were randomly assigned to treatment or placebo groups.Treatment group (1) applied Sea-Bands with acupressure buttons to both wrists for 4 days and removed the Sea-Bands for 3 subsequent days. Placebo group (2) applied the Sea-Bands without acupressure buttons to both wrists on the same time schedule as group 1.Self-reported daily diaries of the number of times per day that participants experienced nausea, the severity of nausea, the number of vomiting episodes per day, and the severity of vomiting were recorded.Results: Mann-Whitney U test revealed that the treatment group had significantly less frequency and severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy while wearing the Sea-Bands than did the placebo group. The treatment group also had significantly less frequency and severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy while wearing the Sea-Bands than when not wearing the Sea-Bands.Conclusion: Sea-Bands with acupressure buttons are a noninvasive, inexpensive, safe, and effective treatment for the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.

Objective(s): To compare the effects of honey dressing versus saline-soaked dressing on healing of Pilonidal Sinus surgical wound.Methods: In randomized controlled clinical trials we compared topical application of honey with saline soaked gauze of 24 patients with surgical wound of Pilonidal Sinuses.Results: The group treated with honey (n=12) had infection eradicated and achieved complete healing compared with the control group(n=12). The findings showed that honey gave better control of infection but there was no difference between the average duration of hospitalizations with the honey treatment and control group but response to treatment and alleviation of morbidity in intervention group were faster.Conclusion: This RCT indicate the effectiveness of honey in rapidly clearing infection from wounds, with no adverse effects to slow the healing process; there is also some evidence to suggest that honey may actively promote healing. However, further research is needed to optimize the effective use of this agent in clinical practice.