The Effect of Mental Health Promotion Program on Psychosocial Adjustment Patterns of Secondary School Students

Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which a person can use his or her own abilities and cope with the normal stresses of life. This study aimed to assess the effect of mental health promotion program for secondary school students on their psychosocial adjustment patterns. This study design was a quasi-experimental, conducted at El Mostakbal Integrated Experimental Language School. The study involved 60 secondary school students, divided into two groups each group consisted of 30 secondary school students. Tools of the study involved, 1) An interview questionnaire to assess socio-demographic characteristics, student's knowledge regarding mental health, students` perception about healthy living and their  psychosocial  adjustment patterns in their daily life, 2) Tennessee of Adolescents' Scale to measure the level of student's self-concept, 3) Self-Consciousness Scale to measure the level of student's self awareness and 4) Anger Scale to measure anger state and anger trait among students. These tools were used before and after implementation of the program. The main results showed that, the Implementation of  mental health promotion program for secondary school students had a positive effect on promoting students` mental health concepts  and  psychosocial adjustment pattern. There were  improvements, with highly statistically significant differences between before and after application of mental health  promotion program for secondary school students regarding to their knowledge and perception about mental health and healthy living , level of their self–concept, self awareness, and anger state and trait, their psychosocial adjustment pattern in their daily life. This study recommended that there is a need for developing and implementing  continuous mental health promotion programs for secondary school students to acquire psychosocial skills, empower their personality and promote their psychosocial adjustment abilities and positive behaviors that enable them to deal effectively with the demands, challenges, and stress of everyday life. Also, there is a need for increasing school students' awareness especially at adolescent's stages about aspects of healthy lifestyle through mass media Keywords: Mental health, promotion program, secondary school and psychosocial adjustmen

Improving Coping Abilities among Caregivers of Patients with Cerebrovascular Stroke

Cerebrovascular stroke is a condition that affects both patients and family members who provide care and support. Because stroke is an unexpected traumatic event that suddenly forces family members into a care giving role, and experience an overwhelming sense of burden, the present study was conducted to assess the perceived stress and stressors facing caregivers of patients with cerebrovascular stroke, their burden, patterns of caring themselves ,their coping abilities  and designing and implementing nursing intervention program for improving caregivers' coping abilities toward their stressors and burden. The study was carried out at the Outpatient Clinic of Neuropsychiaty in Ain Shams University Hospitals. The sample included 50 caregivers of patients with cerebrovascular stroke. Tools used for data collection were 1) Questionnaire dealing with socio-demographic characteristics, general health condition of caregivers, physical, economical, psychological and social stressors facing them and their awareness toward patterns of caring themselves. 2) Perceived Stress Scale to measure the caregivers' perception of stress 3) Burden Interview Questionnaire which indicates how often the caregivers feel toward caring their patients 4) Assessment dependence level questionnaire to assess ADL and IADL of patient. 5) Coping Inventory to assess caregivers' coping abilities. The main results showed that the nursing intervention program was effective in improving caregivers' coping abilities toward their perceived stress and burden. This study recommended that, caregivers-focused intervention programs should be provided for family caregivers emphasizing on, assertive training to deal with burden of care giving based on caregivers' actual needs' assessment and awareness programs are needed about self care and stress management techniques for improving their coping abilities with their stressors and burden of care giving. Keywords: Caregivers, Cerebrovascular Stroke, Coping abilities, Nursing interventio

The potential preventive effect of dietary phytochemicals In Vivo

Abstract Introduction Chemoprevention refers to using specific substances during oncogenesis. Curcumin and catechins are both polyphenol types of phytochemicals present in curcuma longa and green tea. The effect of curcumin is synergistic with epigallocatechin gallate, the most abundant polyphenol in tea. Aim To evaluate and compares the chemopreventive effect of both green tea and curcumin (each individually and in combination) through induction of hamster buccal pouch carcinoma. Materials and methods Squamous cell carcinoma was chemically induced in fifty Syrian golden hamsters divided into 5 groups (10 each). The first group was used as a normal control group. The second group received the carcinogenic agent only. The other three groups received green tea, curcumin, and a combination of both, respectively. Flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemical assays were used to evaluate apoptosis, proliferation, and angiogenesis. ANOVA test was used to analyze the results between the study groups. Results The cells of the positive control group (B) resulted in 11.57% apoptosis. In the study groups, treatment of the cells with green tea (C), and curcumin (D) and both of them (E) showed increased apoptosis. The fluorescent image in group B showed an increase of the red fluorescence in the nucleus and cytoplasm of the squamous cell carcinoma cells while groups C, D, and E showed a decrease of the red fluorescence in the nuclei of the squamous cell carcinoma cells. The microvessel density was higher in the positive control group as compared to the treated groups. Conclusions The combination of green tea and curcumin has a significant chemopreventive effect against oral carcinogenesis

Characterization of Urine Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Reveals B Cell Stimulating Cargo

Elucidation of the biological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their potential roles in physiological and pathological processes is an expanding field of research. In this study, we characterized USC–derived EVs and studied their capacity to modulate the human immune response in vitro. We found that the USC–derived EVs are a heterogeneous population, ranging in size from that of micro–vesicles (150 nm–1 μm) down to that of exosomes (60–150 nm). Regarding their immunomodulatory functions, we found that upon isolation, the EVs (60–150 nm) induced B cell proliferation and IgM antibody secretion. Analysis of the EV contents unexpectedly revealed the presence of BAFF, APRIL, IL–6, and CD40L, all known to play a central role in B cell stimulation, differentiation, and humoral immunity. In regard to their effect on T cell functions, they resembled the function of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)–derived EVs previously described, suppressing T cell response to activation. The finding that USC–derived EVs transport a potent bioactive cargo opens the door to a novel therapeutic avenue for boosting B cell responses in immunodeficiency or cancer