Leaf anatomical characteristics in safflower genotypes as affected by drought stress

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a drought-tolerant species that grows in arid and semi-arid environments exposing to long periods of water deficit stress. Structure and functions of the plant organs including leaf anatomy are affected by drought stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of drought stress on some leaf anatomical traits including leaf thickness, upper and lower epidermal thickness, xylem width, metaxylem diameter, and vascular bundle width and their relationship with grain yield using 20 safflower genotypes under field conditions. A randomized complete block design was used in each of the non-stress and drought stress field conditions. Analysis of variance showed that drought stress significantly reduced all variables measured except vascular bundle width. The results also revealed the positive and significant correlations between grain yield with leaf thickness (r = 0.53**) and xylem width (r = 0.51**) under drought stress conditions. Due to this fact, the leaves thickness and xylem width could be considered key structural features of leaves that manage the ability of a safflower genotype to tolerate water deficit stress. Therefore these traits could be used as criteria to select tolerant genotype that were more tolerant to drought

The Effect of Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Intervention on Quality of Life in Cyclic Mastalgia via Individual Counseling: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Background: Despite high number of visited cases, there are no certain therapeutic guidelines for mastalgia. Generally pain is associated with poor quality of life in all dimensions. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of healthy lifestyle promotion intervention on the quality of life in cyclic mastalgia. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted on women suffering from cyclic mastalgia at the age of 20 and older before menopausal age referred to the health centers of Karaj,Iran from September 2017 to August 2018. The participants were randomly assigned to intervention (N=40) and control groups (N=40). Intervention was carried out in two 46-minute sessions and two 90-minute sessions for the intervention group. The quality of life was assessed before and after the intervention in both groups using the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). The data were analyzed through SPSS statistical software(version 21) using independent sample t-test, Chisquare, and Paired t-test. Besides, P<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Before the intervention, both groups were matched in terms of marital status, educational level, occupation, history of breastfeeding, and mean scores of quality of life (P>0.05). After the intervention, the mean score of life quality in physical, social, environmental, and general health dimensions in the intervention group increased significantly compared to the control group (P>0.001). This difference was not statistically significant in the mental health dimension (P=0.086). Conclusion: The present study indicated that healthy lifestyle promotion intervention could improve the quality of life of women with cyclic mastalgia

The Effect of Sex Counseling Based on PLISSIT Model on Sexual Satisfaction in Women with Cyclic Breast Pain

Abstract Introduction: More than half of the population of women suffer from cyclic breast pain Mastalgia is defined as moderate to severe pain in one or both breasts for more than 5 days. Breast pain is a distressing set of symptoms that is classified as cyclical (recurrent), noncyclic (non-cyclical), and extramammary. This pain can impair women's sexual activity and performance and affect their sexual satisfaction. The simplest way to treat breast pain and reduce the negative impact on sexual satisfaction is with non-drug therapy. In many cases, reassurance and consultation to the patient after careful evaluation can solve a large percentage of problems. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of PLISSIT model based counseling on sexual satisfaction in women with cyclic mastalgia. Methods: This study is a randomized controlled clinical trial study performed on 81 women with cyclic mastalgia referred to 4 comprehensive health centers and two hospital clinics in Qazvin over 2018-2019. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups of intervention (n = 40) and control (n = 41). Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Cardiff’s mastalgia chart were used for primary diagnosis of cyclic breast pain. Intervention was performed as PLISSIT sex counseling in 4 sessions for a maximum of 90 minutes. Demographic checklist and index of sexual satisfaction (ISS) were used for data collection. Follow-up was performed one and three months after the intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated measures test and chi-square test. Significance level was determined as less than 0.05. Results: The two groups of experimental and control groups were in good balance in terms of demographic characteristics and sexual satisfaction scores before intervention and no statistical significant difference was observed (P = 0.23). There was a statistical significant increase in the mean score of female sexual satisfaction in the test group and a decrease in the mean score of sexual satisfaction in the control group (p <0.001) after one and three months intervention by PLISSIT method. Conclusion: This study showed that individual counseling by PLISSIT sex counseling can lead to improvement of sexual satisfaction index in women with cyclic breast pain. Counseling can be provided as a cost-effective and appropriate treatment to promote sexual satisfaction in women with cyclic breast pain. Keywords: Cyclic Breast Pain, Sexual Counseling, PLISSIT Mode

Effect of individual counseling on pain quality in the women with cyclic mastalgia: a clinical trial

Background: Despite the high prevalence of cyclic mastalgia and disagreement about its therapeutic methods, there is a lot of ambiguity about breast pain yet. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of individual counseling on the quality of pain in the women with cyclic mastalgia. Methods: This randomized-controlled trial study was conducted in 2017 on eighty eligible women with cyclic mastalgia that had referred to Health Centers in Karaj, Iran. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups; intervention and control. Four individual counseling sessions were held for intervention group. With a special visual analog scale for pain and Cardiff's breast pain chart, cyclic mastalgia was diagnosed. Pain was assessed before and after consultation with McGill pain quality questionnaire. T-test and ANCOVA were used to examine the means of pain quality before and after the intervention. Findings: Demographic results including, marital status, educational level, occupation, spouse's education and the husband's job were not significant. Also, the history of lactation, surgery, breast sampling, benign breast disease, nipple discharge and breast injury were no significant between two groups as the chi-square test. But, after the intervention, the McGill mean score test in all of pain dimensions showed a significant difference between two groups (P= 0.001). Conclusion: This study showed that counseling can lead improvement of pain quality indices in affecting women. As the result, counseling can be suggested as a suitable treatment for mild to moderate pain. Keywords: Mastalgia, Counseling, Pain, Breas

Examining the effect of a brief psychoeducation intervention based on Self-Regulation Model on Sexual Satisfaction for Women with Breast Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose: The main goal of this study was to investigate whether the Self-Regulation Model could improve sexual satisfaction for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Methods: Adult women diagnosed with breast cancer were recruited from a hospital in Qazvin, Iran. Participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n = 40) or a control group (n = 40). All participants were administered a demographic questionnaire and an Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS) pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 1, 2, and 3 months following the intervention. The control group completed the assessments along the same time line as the intervention group. Women in the experimental group were provided three sessions of a psychological individual intervention which included psychoeducation regarding their diagnosis and personalized intervention strategies to improve their overall sexual satisfaction with sexual intercourse. Each intervention took between 60 to 90 minutes to administer. Results: The experimental and control group participants were well balance in demographic characteristics and sexual satisfaction scores before the intervention. Interestingly, the intervention group showed a positive increasing trend in the sexual satisfaction scores over time but the controls had a negative trend (p < 0.05). There were also statistical differences in the sexual satisfaction scores at each month (p < 0.05) adjusted for baseline score and relevant demographical variables showing a demonstrated longstanding effects with a significant increase in sexual satisfaction over time. Conclusion: Providing a psychoeducational based intervention provided an increase of sexual satisfaction during intercourse for women diagnosed with breast cancer. The psychoeducation based intervention provided an opportunity for participants to dispel common myths regarding their disease and obtain new strategies and skills to improve their sexual satisfaction from intercourse with their partner