Minocycline combination therapy with fluvoxamine in moderate-to-severe obsessive�compulsive disorder: A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial

Aim: Several lines of evidence implicate glutamatergic dysfunction in the pathophysiology of obsessive�compulsive disorder (OCD), presenting this neurotransmitter as a target for the development of novel pharmacotherapy. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of minocycline as an augmentative agent to fluvoxamine in the treatment of patients with OCD. Methods: One hundred and two patients with the diagnosis of moderate-to-severe OCD were recruited to this study. A randomized double-blind trial was designed and patients received either L-carnosine or placebo as adjuvant to fluvoxamine for 10 weeks. The patients randomly received either minocycline 100 mg twice per day or placebo for 10 weeks. All patients received fluvoxamine (100 mg/day) for the first 4 weeks, followed by 200 mg/day for the rest of the trial, regardless of their treatment groups. Participants were evaluated using the Yale�Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). The main outcome measure was to assess the efficacy of minocycline in improving the OCD symptoms. Results: General linear model repeated measures demonstrated significant effect for time � treatment interaction on the Y-BOCS total scores, F(1.49, 137.93) = 7.1, P = 0.003, and Y-BOCS Obsession subscale score, F(1.54, 141.94) = 9.72, P = 0.001, and near significant effect for the Y-BOCS Compulsion subscale score, F(1.27, 117.47) = 2.92, P = 0.08. A significantly greater rate of partial and complete response was observed in the minocycline group (P < 0.001). The frequency of side-effects was not significantly different between the treatment arms. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that minocycline could be a tolerable and effective adjuvant in the management of patients with OCD. © 2016 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2016 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurolog

Validity and reliability of the Persian version of �drug-related knowledge and attitude questionnaire� among Iranian medical students

Background: Promoting drug-related knowledge and improving relevant attitudes among students are of crucial importance toward the prevention of drug misuse. Objective: This study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the �drug-related knowledge and attitude questionnaire� among Iranian medical students. Methods: The participants of this cross-sectional study were students of Iran University of Medical Sciences. The �drug-related knowledge and attitude questionnaire� and a socio-demographic questionnaire were used to gather the data. Content validity was assessed by a panel of 11 experts, and face validity was evaluated by 10 participating students. Item-total correlation and Cronbach�s alpha coefficients were used as internal consistency estimates. Results: The face and content validity of the questionnaire were satisfactory. The overall content validity index was.82. Cronbach�s alpha was.679, indicating an acceptable degree of internal consistency and homogeneity between the items. Overall, most of the students had adequate knowledge about the harmful effects of addictive substances (48.11 ± 3.26). Conclusions: The �drug-related knowledge and attitude questionnaire� has favorable validity and reliability to assess the knowledge and attitude of Iranian students toward drug misuse and may be used in clinical and epidemiological studies. Besides, our findings can provide a suitable starting point for the implementation of effective psychoeducational interventions aimed at the improvement of the students� knowledge and attitudes toward drug misuse. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Aromatherapy Massage on Sleep in Children and Infants

Background: Sleep disturbances among child patients are a commonly reported problem. We aimed to review the effectiveness of aromatherapy on sleep disorders of children and infants. Materials and Methods: This review was conducted with a systematic search of electronic resources in English such as Medline (via PubMed), Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE, with no time limit from inception up to February 2019; using the following keywords alone or in combination: (Aromatherapy OR Smell OR Olfactory OR Essential oil) AND (Sleep Disorders OR Sleep OR Sleep Paralysis OR Sleep Arousal Disorders) AND (Children OR Infant OR Baby OR Neonate OR Pediatric). Results: Four studies were included in the review. In the first study, a comparison of the nights with and without aromatherapy showed no significant difference regarding length of time the children were asleep, sleep onset time and number of interruptions during the night. In the second study, aromatherapy with Rosa damascena essential oil significantly improved sleep quality parameters in children except with daytime sleeping (p=0.059). In the third study, a significant decrease was observed in the sleep quality score in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in aromatherapy with oil of orange than in the controls (p<0.05). In the fourth study, the infants in the Lavender bath oil group spend more time in deep sleep and less time crying prior to sleep onset than in the control group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Aromatherapy with Lavender and Rosa damascena essential oil and orange oil can improve group sleep quality, deep sleep and time crying prior to sleep onset. However, it was not effectiveregarding sleep disorder in children with autism