Daneshvar Medicine: Basic and Clinical Research Journal
Year:2014 | Volume:22 | Issue:113|Papers Count:10

Background and Objective: Regarding the high prevalence of mental disorders, especially depression in the world and Iran, and their increasing prevalence in recent years, as well as the major role of social and environmental factors in the prevalence and maintenance of these disorders, appropriate interventions to modify lifestyle in order to reduce the incidence of mental disorders, particularly depression, to be presented to stakeholders and policy makers seems necessary.Materials and Methods: In this study, the literature was examined using search engines. The retrieved articles were then categorized and reviewed.Results: Psychosocial factors play an important role in the etiology of mental disorders. The main factors in this category are marital status, economic class, unpleasant life events, the uneven emotional stress, chronic and repeated failures, migration and unpredictable environment. In order to prevent mental disorders in the community, appropriate strategies should be undertaken to deal with these factors. Theese strategies generally include interventions that result in safe and secure low-stress conditions, emotional balance, respecting to people and predictable condition in the community.Conclusion: Sensitizing policy makers, administrators and the public regarding the importance of mental health is essential. Policymakers need to shift the resources toward community-based interventions. The general trend of these interventions should be directed to poverty alleviation, improving employment conditions and create stable and predictable conditions in society, with an emphasis on empowering people. Creating a calm and predictable environment can be achieved by inter-sectoral cooperation using the capacities of the executive, judicial and legislative organizations with the cooperation of the private sector and NGOs.

Background and Objective: Studies have shown that estradiol and Portulaca oleracea extract have analgesic effects. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of co-administration of estradiol and Portulaca oleracea seed hydroalcoholic extract on pain induced by writhing test in female mice.Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 78 female balb c mice were randomly divided into control and test groups receiving low, moderate and high doses of Portulaca oleracea extract and estradiol and their combination. Following intraperitoneal administration of the hormone or extract, pain threshold was measured using writhing test and data were analyzed using ANOVA.Results: Administration of low, moderate and high dose of estradiol resulted in increased number of writhing (p<0.01, p<0.001 and p<0.01, respectively). The number of writhing increased in the group receiving a low dose of Portulaca oleracea extract (p<0.01), however, it decreased in groups receiving moderate and high doses of Portulaca oleracea extract (p<0.001). Co-administration of low doses of estradiol and Portulaca oleracea extract and co-administration of high doses of estradiol and Portulaca oleracea extract resulted in lower number of writhing as compared to groups receiving low and high doses of estradiol (p<0.001).Conclusion: Our findings indicate that appropriate doses of Portulaca oleracea seed extract and estradiol have pain lowering effects. Portulaca oleracea seed extract and estradiol have also synergistic effect on reducing of pain.

Background and Objective: Tongue has different duties. Developmental disorder, inflammation, infection, neoplasm and trauma may lead to deformation of the tongue, burning and pain, discomfort, speech difficulties, nutritional and psychological problems and halitosis. The prevalence of tongue form disorders has been variable between 4.95% and 41.2% in different studies. The main purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of tongue form disorders in children under 12 years and their relationship with variables like ethnicity, gender, familial history of tongue disorders and systemic diseases.Materials and Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, 1400 children under 12 years who referred to pediatrics clinic of Mostafa Khomeini hospital in years 2012 and 2013 were examined and studied. An examination chart was prepared. After completing the form and oral examinations, the results were analyzed with related statistic test in SPSS software version 16.Results: Tongue disorders were found in 27.14% of the children with a 95% confidence interval (24.8-29.5). The most frequent tongue disorder was coated tongue (14.3%) with a 95% confidence interval (12.5-16.1). Other oral disorders were geographic tongue, oral thrush, strawberry tongue, ankyloglossia, scrotal tongue, red raspberry tongue, aphthous stomatitis, median rhomboid glossitis, microglossia and macroglossia. Significant associations were found between strawberry tongue and infectious diseases, and also between strawberry tongue and pharyngitis. Significant associations were also found between disorders like coated tongue, oral thrush, geographic tongue and general health.Conclusion: In this study, about one-third of the children had tongue disorders and there were a significant association between some of these tongue disorders and systemic diseases.

Background and Objective: Although uremic pruritus (UP) is one of the most common disabling problems in hemodialysis (HD) patients, its associated factors have remained unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and severity of UP in a group of Iranian hemodialysis patients and its associated clinical and laboratory factors.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on sixty-seven patients on HD at Tehran Shahid Mostafa Khomeini hospital dialysis unit. The patients answered Yosipovitch pruritus questionnaire. The UP prevalence and severity (mild, moderate and severe) and their relationships with clinical and laboratory parameters (age, sex, underlying renal disease, HD duration, HD sessions, time of every session, xerosis, neuropathy, dialysis adequacy, serum levels of urea, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, ferritin, hematocrit, C-reactive protein, thyroid hormone, parathormone and hemoglobin A1C) were assessed.Results: Fifty-four (80.6%) patients had pruritus that was mild in 31.4%, moderate in 51.9% and severe in 16.7%. UP prevalence was associated with xerosis (p=0.025). UP severity was significantly correlated with serum level of albumin (p=0.015, C=-0.329). No significant correlation was seen between UP prevalence and severity with age, sex, underlying renal disease, HD duration, HD sessions, time of every session, xerosis, neuropathy, dialysis adequacy, serum levels of urea, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, ferritin, hematocrit, C-reactive protein, thyroid hormone, parathormone and hemoglobin A1C.Conclusion: Pruritus is still a common problem in HD patients. Improving xerosis may reduce the UP prevalence and higher level of serum albumin can reduce UP severity in HD patients.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to compare changes in the mental health status of the residents of Tehran from 1999 till 2011.Materials and Methods: This study was an overview of two cross-sectional, descriptive researches that were performed in 1998 and 2011. Samples of these two studies were recruited by regular randomized cluster sampling. In both studies, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used to assess mental health status of general population.Results: The results showed that 21.5% of participants in the 1998 survey suffered from mental disorders (27% women and 14.9% men). In 2011, this figure increased to 39.6% (37.4% of men and 43.1% of women). Prevalence of mental disorders increased from 1998 until 2011 by about 1.8 fold (1.6 fold for women and 2.5 fold for men). In both studies, the risk of mental disorders increased with increasing age, unemployment, illiteracy and divorced or widowed individual. Anxiety symptoms were more prevalent in both studies as compared to somatization, depression, and social dysfunction scales.Conclusion: The dramatic increases of mental disorders during 12 years indicated that policy-makers should give greater importance to prevention and promotion of mental disorders for Tehran residents.

Background and objective: Stroke is prevalent among adults. The fall is most common balance and motor impairments that affects the quality of life in stroke patients. This study was performed to investigate the factors affecting the motor recovery in stroke patients treated with occupational therapy and predicted balance status in patients with a Hurdle regression model.Materials and Methods: In a longitudinal study of 9 months with non-random access sampling on a total of 30 stroke patients, the score test of balance was measured every two weeks. Because of many zeros in the number of falls, regression Hurdle model was fitted to data using Sas Software (version 9.2).Results: The frequency of falls in women was more than men. The relative performance improvement was achieved with a minimum of 50 sessions. Stroke duration and length of patient follow-up significantly improved motor function in stroke patients (p<0.05). The odds of motor improvement in patients with chronic phase was 10 percent less than odds of patients with the acute phase.Conclusion: Considering the factors involved in the promotion of motor function and doing combinational interventions with occupational therapy to prevent falls in stroke patients specially in women with chronic phase that were at higher risk of falls can be ventured to fast recover this group of patients to the community.

Background and Objective: Metformin and acarbose are two drugs, currently used for treatment of diabetes. The present study examined their effect, alone or combined together, on glycemic control, lipid profile and serum visfatin level in nicotinamide/streptozocin type 2 diabetic rats.Materials and Methods: Type 2 diabetes was induced in male Wistar rats by a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin (60 mg/kg body weight), 15 minutes after the i.p. administration of nicotinamide (110 mg/kg body weight). After one week, diabetic rats were randomly divided into 4 groups. Three diabetic groups were treated with 150 mg/kg/day of metformin or acarbose 40 mg/100g of diet and a combination of them for six weeks. Body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profile, insulin, HOMA-IR and visfatin were assessed and compared with control group.Results: The data showed that all treatment methods down-regulated visfatin levels in diabetic rats, but the reduction was significant only in metformin group (162±21.7, 195.66±6.45, p=0.001). Serum insulin level also decreased in all treated groups, but it was significant in acarbose (p<0.05) and in combination therapy group (p<0.05). Fasting blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin decreased significantly in all treated rats, especially in the treated combination group. Lipid profile improved in all treated groups and HOMA-IR was improved in combination therapy group.Conclusion: Compared with acarbose or metformin monotherapy, addition of acarbose to metformin has a superior anti-hyperglycemic efficacy and provides an efficacious and safe alternative for treatment of type 2 diabetic rats.

Background and Objective: One of the most common bacterial infections in the children is urinary tract infection (UTI) that its early diagnosis and proper treatment has high importance and analysis of typing and antibiotic resistance of isolated bacteria from urine of children with different sex and ages can help empirical therapy of UTI before preparing lab data.Materials and Methods: The data of positive urine culture of children before 15 years old in laboratory of Pars hospital in Tehran in spring of 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. These data were sex, age, type of admission of patients, type of isolated bacteria and also antibiotic susceptibility pattern of isolates. P value of ≤0/05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Among 136 randomized clinical isolates, the most frequently isolated bacteria were E. coli (51.5%), Klebsiella (11.5%), Enterococci (8.8%) and coagulase negative Staphylococci (13.2%). There was differences in frequency of isolated bacteria in both sex and group of ages below 2 years old and 2-14 years old. The result of antibiotic susceptibility test showed resistance of most isolates of Klebsiella and E. coli to commonly used antibiotics and also there were differences in sensitivity of isolated bacteria in different sex and ages.Conclusion: The results of this study like other studies showed that gramnegative bacteria, especially E. coli are most frequently bacteria in urine of children. Difference between two sexes and different ages is shown regarding prevalence of UTI, type of bacteria and antibiotic resistance that can help in empirical therapy.

Background and Objective: Parkinson’s disease is a common movement disorder in elders caused by depletion of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra in midbrain. Due to antioxidant and neuroprotective properties of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the present study investigated its neuroprotective effect in an experimental model of Parkinson’s disease.Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, male rats (n=32) were divided into 4 groups: sham, EGCG-treated sham, EGCG-treated lesion and lesion groups. Model of Parkinson’s disease was induced by injecting 12.5 microgram of 6-hydroxydopamine- ascorbate dissolved in saline solution into the left side of neostriatum. In EGCG-treated sham and EGCG-treated lesion groups, 20 mg/kg of EGCG was administered intraperitonealy two times with an interval of 24 hours before steriotoxic surgery. After 1 week, the rotational behavior following apomorphine injections was assessed in one hour and dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra were counted.Results: In the lesion group, apomorphine caused contralateral rotational behavior (p<0.001) and the number of neurons in left substantia nigra was significantly reduced in comparison with sham group (p<0.05). Administration of EGCG in lesion group significantly reduced the number of apomorphine -induced rotations (p<0.05), however it had no effect on the number of neurons in the substantia nigra.Conclusion: Pre-treatment with intraperitoneal administration of EGCG can reduce the motor asymmetry (attenuation of rotational behavior) in the experimental model of Parkinson’s disease but it does not have a significant protective effect on toxicity of 6-hydroxydopamine.

Background and Objective: In this century, 25 percent of people are with diagnosable mental disorders and approximately 450 million people worldwide are suffering from some forms of mental disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of designed sport programs on mental health of midwives.Materials and Methods: In this RCT, health care centers no.1 and no.3 were randomly selected and each center were randomly assigned to two groups of intervention and control. Then, 60 employed midwives who were working in these centers were selected by purposeful sampling. Participants filled up General Health Questionnaire 28, before and after the study and Bruce test was taken by techno gym treadmill in order to determine maximal oxygen uptake. The intervention group performed 45-minute sport training program three times a week, within 8 weeks. Data were analyzed with SPSS 19 software using independent student t test, paired sample t-test, Mann-Whitney u, Chi squared and two-way ANOVA tests. Meanwhile, p<0.05 was considered significant.Results: Sport training had a significant effect on mental health total score (p=0.002), subscales of anxiety and insomnia (p=0.008), physical complaints (p=0.008) and social dysfunction (p=0.011). However sport training has no significant effect on subscale of depression (p=0.318).Conclusion: Designed sport training promotes mental health of midwives by reducing anxiety and insomnia, physical complaints and social dysfunction.