Assimilative Integration of Gestalt Therapy in the Treatment of Pentazocine Drug Dependence: A Case Report

Application of gestalt therapy is not common with Nigerian clients. The more common psychotherapy modalities are the indigenous psychotherapy models of either Harmony Restoration Therapy or Meseron Therapy. This paper presents a case report of Ms. J. E, a 28 year old single graduate, a civil servant. Client was misdiagnosed at the age of 24 years as being anaemic while undergoing her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme and was placed on injectable Pentaxocine. Client became addicted to the drug, using it as a stimulant when depressed. Client’s abuse of the drug led her to stealing personal belongings of family members to purchase the drug. Client stole her mother’s gold trinkets worth about 5 million Nairas, which purportedly led the mother developing kidney failure and her eventual death. Client had gone for previous rehabilitation, which did not achieve positive result. Client was treated with gestalt therapy in order to resolve the unfinished business that she had with her mother. Client improved following treatment and is still stable after two years follow-up

Ocimum gratissimum Ameliorates Gentamicin-Induced Kidney Injury but Decreases Creatinine Clearance Following Sub-Chronic Administration in Rats

The effects of aqueous extract of Ocimum gratissimum leaf (AOGL) on the renal function of rats with gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity were investigated. This study involved the use of forty five (45) adult male Wistar rats (housed in separate metabolic cages) such that graded doses of OAGL were administered to the experimental groups (p.o.) for 28 days after exposure to gentamicin toxicity (100 mg/kg i.p.) for 1 week. At the end of the study, comparisons of some indices of renal function as well as antioxidant status (GSH and TBARS) were made between the control, toxic and AOGL-treated groups at P < 0.05. The result showed that gentamicin treatment caused significant increase (P < .05) in urine output, urea, creatinine, total protein, relative kidney weight, and TBARS, as well as significant decrease (P < .05) in urine creatinine and GSH levels. Post-treatment with graded doses of AOGL caused significant increase in food consumption, GSH, urine, and plasma creatinine, as well as significant decrease (P < .05) in relative kidney weight, TBARS, and urine total protein. There was an appreciable difference in the kidney histology of the AOGL-treated groups when compared with the toxic control. Hence, the extract has therapeutic potential in the management of gentamicin-induced kidney injury, although a risk profile of renal dysfunction is not unlikely from 28 days of administration as evident by the decrease in creatinine clearance

Robust-M new two-parameter estimator for linear regression models: Simulations and applications

In the presence of multicollinearity and outliers, the ordinary least squares estimator remains inconsistent and unreliable. Several estimators have been proposed that can co-handle the problems of multicollinearity and outliers simultaneously. However, there is still a need to explore some other robust methods when the two anomalies appear in the linear regression model and recommend it to end users of statistics. Therefore, this study proposed Robust-M New Two Parameter (RNTP) and examined its performance over some already existing ones in the presence of multicollinearity and outliers in the x-direction. The theoretical expression under some conditions was established to showcase the new estimator's superiority. A simulation study was carried out alongside some factors to show that the RNTP is better than all other estimators considered in the study. The simulation study results revealed that RNTP outperformed other estimators in the study using the minimum MSE as the criterion. Likewise, real-life data was applied to affirm this claim

Government Expenditure and Its Implication for Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria

Government Expenditure is an important macroeconomic objective in an economy. In this study, the structure and size of government expenditure determine the pattern of growth in the economy. The Keynesian aggregate expenditure is adopted as a framework to explain the role of government spending on output. The Johansen cointegration test was applied to verify the long run relationship between the variables and the Granger causality test was employed to determine the existence and direction of causation between government expenditure and economic growth. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology was employed to examine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. From the analysis and findings, government spending significantly and positively explained the economic growth of the country. The relationship was significant at 5 percent level. In comparing the results of the total government expenditure with capital and recurrent expenditure, the result shows that they are positively related to economic growth however the recurrent component of the expenditure significantly explained more. Therefore, it is recommended that the government should give more priority to the capital component that is more productive and can induce rapid economic prosperity

A Simulation Study on Robustness of One Sample Inferential Statistics in Mixture Distribution

Mixture distribution refers to the combination of more than one probability distribution. Meanwhile, non-normality of data set may be inevitable and the cause may be as a result of mixed distributions thereby renders parametric tests ineffective. Montecarlo experiment was performed 5000 times under twelve sample sizes where data were generated from Gaussian and Cauchy distributions using R-statistical packages. At three commonly used alpha levels (0.1, 0.05 and 0.01), the robustness of the test statistics (Rank transformation t-test, Wilcoxon sign test (Distribution and Asymptotic), Signed rank test (Distribution and Asymptotic) and Trimmed t-test) were examined. When the type I error rate of a statistic approximately equal to the true error rate then the statistic is considered robust. At 0.1 and 0.05, Rank transformation t-test, Wilcoxon sign test (distribution) and Trimmed t-test in this order are robust. Meanwhile, at 0.01 Rank transformation andWilcoxon sign test (distribution) were identified to be robust. Also, further counts at all levels of significance revealed that the Rank transformation test is robust and thereby recommended when data comes from a mixed distribution. Hence, this study has been able to identify test statistics that are robust when data comes from a mixed distribution in one sample problem

Amelioration of Cadmium-Induced Nephropathy using Polyphenol-rich Extract of Vernonia amygdalina (Del.) Leaves in Rat Model

AIM: To determine the effects of polyphenol-rich extract of the leaves of Vernonia amygdalina (PEVA) in rats with Cd-induced nephropathy.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty five male Wistar rats were divided into five groups as follows; Group 1 received distilled water throughout the period of study. Group 2 received 5 mg/kg body weight of cadmium (Cd), in the form of CdSO4, for five consecutive days via intraperitoneal route. Groups 3, 4 and 5 were pretreated with Cd as group 2 and thereafter received oral treatment of PEVA for 4 weeks at 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg body weight, respectively.RESULTS: Exposure to Cd toxicity significantly induced deleterious alterations in plasma and urine levels of creatinine, urea and glucose as well as creatinine and urea clearance (p &lt; 0.05) in the rat model. There was a significant disturbance in the antioxidant system as revealed by the levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and reduced glutathione (GSH) (p &lt; 0.05) in the kidney tissue of the rats. With marked improvements in renal histoarchitecture, PEVA treatment showed a duration and non dose-dependent ameliorative potential. CONCLUSION: PEVA treatment reversed the compromise of renal function that was induced by Cd toxicity in rat model

Prophylactic and Curative Assessment of Essentiale Forte® On Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Liver Damage in Wistar Rats

AIM: This study was to assess the prophylactic and curative effects of Essentiale forte (ESF) on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) induced liver damage in Wistar rats.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four adult Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups of six rats each. Group I (control group) received 0.3 ml/kg/day of propylene glycol for one month; group II (toxic control) was given 0.7 ml/kg/day of CCl4 dissolved in olive oil (1:1,v/v) orally for 7 days; group III (prophylactic group) received 4.3 mg/kg/day of ESF for one month followed by CCl4 for one week; group IV (curative group) was treated with CCl4 for one week and subsequently received ESF (4.3 mg/kg/day) for one month. Half of the rats were sacrificed at active period, the other half after a 2-week recovery period.RESULTS: The activities of serum AST, ALT, ALP, total bilirubin level were significantly higher, total protein and GSH levels were significantly reduced in the toxic control group compared to the control group. Group III had significantly higher AST and ALT activities compared to the control rats at active period, whereas after the recovery period no significant differences were observed in almost all the parameters. Moreover, no significant differences in the parameters mentioned above were observed in group IV compared to the control rats at active and recovery period.CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that Essential forte was better as a curative agent rather than a prophylactic agent in rats

Plasma levels of nitric oxide related amino acids in demented subjects with Down syndrome are related to neopterin concentrations

Subjects with Down syndrome (DS) have abnormalities in virtually all aspects of the immune system and almost all will be affected with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is thought that nitric oxide (NO) is involved in the pathophysiology of AD. In the present study, including a total of 401 elderly DS subjects, the spectrum of plasma amino acids and neopterin was investigated and related to development of AD. Concentrations of nearly all amino acids in DS subjects differed significantly from those of healthy controls. Neopterin was increased in DS subjects, especially in dementia. The production of NO as reflected by an increased citrulline/arginine ratio (Cit/Arg ratio) was enhanced during development of clinical dementia. Neopterin concentrations correlated to the Cit/Arg ratio only in the group of prevalent demented subjects (ρ = 0.48, P = 0.006). The results of this study are suggestive for an increase in oxidative processes in DS subjects with AD

Diabetes and the Risk of Multi-System Aging Phenotypes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

[[abstract]]Background: Observational studies suggested an association between diabetes and the risk of various geriatric conditions (i.e., cognitive impairment, dementia, depression, mobility impairment, disability, falls, and urinary incontinence). However, the magnitude and impact of diabetes on older adults have not been reviewed. Methodology/Principal Findings: MEDLINE and PSYCINFO databases were searched through November 2007 for published studies, supplemented by manual searches of bibliographies of key articles. Population-based, prospective cohort studies that reported risk of geriatric outcomes in relation to diabetes status at baseline were selected. Two authors independently extracted the data, including study population and follow-up duration, ascertainment of diabetes status at baseline, outcomes of interest and their ascertainment, adjusted covariates, measures of association, and brief results. Fifteen studies examined the association of DM with cognitive dysfunction. DM was associated with a faster decline in cognitive function among older adults. The pooled adjusted risk ratio (RR) for all dementia when persons with DM were compared to those without was 1.47 (95% CI, 1.25 to 1.73). Summary RRs for Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia comparing persons with DM to those without were 1.39 (CI, 1.16 to 1.66) and 2.38 (CI, 1.79 to 3.18), respectively. Four of 5 studies found significant association of DM with faster mobility decline and incident disability. Two studies examined the association of diabetes with falls in older women. Both found statistically significant associations. Insulin users had higher RR for recurrent falls. One study for urinary incontinence in older women found statistically significant associations. Two studies for depression did not suggest that DM was an independent predictor of incident depression. Conclusions/Significance: Current evidence supports that DM is associated with increased risk for selected geriatric conditions. Clinicians should increase their awareness and provide appropriate care. Future research is required to elucidate the underlying pathological pathway. 2009 Lu et al