Comparison of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy andCompassion-Focused Therapy on Quality of Life and Health-Promoting Behaviors of Mothers with Gestational Diabetes

Introduction:Gestational diabetes is the most common metabolic complication of pregnancy, affecting 10%-15% of all pregnancies, depending on diagnostic criteria. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitmenttherapy and compassion-focused therapy on the quality of life and health-promoting behaviors of mothers with gestational diabetes.Method:The research method was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. The statistical population of this study was all pregnant women referred to Milad Hospital in Tehran in 2019.45participantswere randomly selected and placed in three groups of acceptance and commitment therapy, compassion-focused therapy, and control group.The follow-up phase was performed on all three groups three months after the post-test. The research tools included the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale and the Walker Health-Promoting Lifestyle Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate covariance analysis by spss.22. Result:The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion-focused therapy had a significant effect on improving the quality of life and health-promoting behaviors in women with gestational diabetes (P<0.001).Conclusion:It can be concluded that acceptance and commitment therapy has a greater impact on the quality of life and health-promoting behaviors of women with gestational diabetes than compassion-focused therapy. It encourages individuals to communicate their experiences fully and without resistance as they move towardstheir worthy goals and to accept them without judgment. Declaration of Interest: Non

Structural Equation Modeling of Adherence to Treatment Based on Cognitive Function Mediating Role of Coping Strategies in Women with Breast Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy

Background and Aim:The present study aimed to investigate the structural equations of treatment adherence based on cognitive function mediated by coping styles in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Materials and Methods:The present study was correlational and structural equation modeling. The statistical population included patients with breast cancer referred to specialized cancer clinics in Tehran between October and February 2017. The sample consisted of 250 patients with breast cancer who were selected by voluntary sampling. Data were obtained using the Folkman and Lazarus Coping Strategies Questionnaire, the Cognitive Function Questionnaire, and Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Data were also analyzed using correlation coefficient, Pearson correlation matrix, multiple regression, and structural equation modeling. Also, all statistical calculations were performed using Amos.22 and SPSS.22 software. Results:The results showed that cognitive function had a direct effect on coping strategies (β=0.48, P<0.001) and adherence to treatment (β=0.63, P<0.001). Coping strategies had a mediating role in the relationship between cognitive function and adherence to treatment. Conclusion:It can be concluded that cancer and the patient's necessity to follow treatment cause many challenges in daily life that necessitate the use of coping styles to adapt, coping styles play an important role in the course, control and psychosocial adjustment of the patient with cancer can hav

The Effectiveness of Integrative Group Therapy on the Sexual Function of Women with Systemic Scleroderma

Aims: Systemic scleroderma is a multiple chronic autoimmune disease that has important clinical and psychological consequences, including sexual dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of integrated treatment group on sexual function and its domains in women with scleroderma. Materials & Methods: This research was a semi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with the experimental and control groups. The statistical population included women with scleroderma referred to Shariati Hospital in Tehran and Iran's Rheumatism Center in the second half of 2017. Of these, 30 patients were selected as available samples and randomly were placed in the control and the experimental groups. The experimental group was subjected to an integrated approach intervention in 9 sessions of 90-minutes, where as the control group did not receive such an intervention. The instrument of this study was the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS24 software and repeated measures ANOVA. Findings: Unilateral psychotherapy intervention significantly increased the mean post-test of sexual function and its six sub-components in both control and experimental groups (p<0.01, F=19.59). The satisfaction component with 0.82 (p<0.01, F=125.35) and psychological stimulation with 0.74 (F=77.9, p<0.01) had the most effect on intervention, and the component of orgasm with 0.33 (F=13.54, p<0.01) had the least effect among the components. After three months, there was no statistically significant difference between the post-test and the follow-up of the experimental group, which indicated the stability of intervention effects. Conclusion: Unified psychotherapy is effective in increasing the sexual function of patients with systemic sclerosis and can play a significant role in improving the quality of life of these people

Evaluation of the profile of alopecia areata and the prevalence of thyroid function test abnormalities and serum autoantibodies in Iranian patients

BACKGROUND: The study aimed at evaluating the prevalence of thyroid function abnormalities in patients with alopecia areata (AA) and its association with other autoimmune diseases and various autoimmune antibodies. METHOD: We retrospectively analyzed medical records of 123 patients with AA. The main site of involvement, pattern, and extent of alopecia as well as presence of the similar disease in first-degree family members and serologic status of patients were recorded. RESULTS: Participating in the study were 57 males and 66 females (6 to 59 years old). In the majority of patients (69.9%) the disease was manifested in the first two decades of life. Patients with family members having alopecia were recorded in 24.4%. Thyroid function abnormalities were found in 8.9% of patients. Positive autoimmune antibodies were associated with AA in 51.4% of patients with no significant association between the severity and duration of disease and presence of these antibodies. CONCLUSION: The incidence of positive auto-immune antibodies in Iranian patients is higher than previous reports. Concerning the female:male ratio, thyroid function tests and the prevalence of alopecia in first-degree relatives, our results are compatible with previous data obtained from different ethnic populations. Previous reports documented that a greater severity and longer duration of AA were seen in the early onset forms; however our result are relatively different which could be explained by differences in genetic factors

Developing Real Time Automatic Step Detection in the three dimensional Accelerometer Signal implemented on a Microcontroller System

Parkinson’s disease is associated with reduced coordination between respiration and locomotion. For the neurological rehabilitation research, it requires a long-time monitoring system, which enables the online analysis of the patient’s vegetative locomotor coordination. In this work a real time step detector using three-dimensional accelerometer signal for the patients with Parkinson‘s disease is developed. This step detector is a complement for a recently developed system included of intelligent, wirelessly communicating sensors. The system helps to focus on the scientific questions whether this coordination may serve as a measure for the rehabilitation progress of PD patients.+46-762453110 +46-46288697

Autonomous coordinator for intelligent sensor nodes enabling real time data fusion for monitoring and feedback application in neurological rehabilitation

Many neurological diseases are associated with a pathological change in the coordination of different physiological rhythms. To monitor these changes a fusion of the corresponding physiological signals is necessary. In order to do this data fusion on the sensor node level we developed an autonomous miniaturized IEEE 802.15.4 based wireless network coordinator (cNODE - coordinating Network Operating Device). This coordinator enables node-node communication initiated by our recently developed intelligent sensor nodes and thus real time feedback can be realized. This concept ensures, that the sensor nodes (iNODE - intelligent Network Operating Device) get along with an ‘Ultra Small Stack’ for RF- communication and can spend the main part of their resources for digital signal processing while recording up to eight channels with a sample rate up to 8kHz each lossless on a local data storage (4GB). Both, the sensor nodes and the network coordinating node are based on the ultra low power microcontroller MSP430 and have an outer dimension of 20mm per rim and less than 4.5gram of weight plus the Lithium-Ion battery. Using the IEEE802.15.4 wireless standard we successfully tested a net data rate 141kbit/s and a synchronous start of several sensor nodes with a jitter less than 4μs. The application we aim on is the long term monitoring of the disturbed coordination between locomotion and respiration in Parkinson Disease (PD) patients during rehabilitation. The question to be answered by this study is to what level the change in locomotor-respiratory coordination can serve as a measure for the rehabilitation progress. Additionally it is planned to analyze whether the training of the locomotor-respiratory coordination based on real time tactile feedback stimulation affects the rehabilitation progress

The Protective Effect of Catechin on Fertility in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Male Mice

Background and Objective: Diabetes affects many physiological systems of the body and can lead to fertility disorders. Since catechin, as a strong antioxidant, can improve sperm parameters and increase fertility, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of catechin on oxidative stress, sperm parameters and in vitro fertilization (IVF) of diabetic mice. Methods: In this experimental study, 48 adult male NMRI mice were divided into 6 groups of 8: oral control, injection control, diabetic, diabetic with a low dose of catechin (25 mg per kilogram of body weight), diabetic with a medium dose of catechin (50 mg per kilogram of body weight) and diabetic with a high dose of catechin (100 mg per kilogram of body weight). Diabetes was induced via intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (50 mg per kilogram of body weight) and after the 30-day treatment period, sperm parameters, testosterone hormone level, catalase level, total oxidative capacity, malondialdehyde and IVF were evaluated. Findings: In diabetic mice, sperm count (28.63±1.24) and sperm motility percentage (53.47±1.46) and live sperms (55.96±1.34), as we as zygote (57.68±1.56), two-cell embryos (62.93±3.92), blastocysts (41.69±1.49) and hatched embryos (34.51±2.98) were significantly reduced compared to the control group (p<0.05). In the diabetic group, the percentage of immature sperm (13.41±0.30) and damaged DNA (8.35±0.42) increased. Administering catechin improved sperm parameters, fertilization rate and embryo growth. Conclusion: Considering the harmful effects of diabetes on fertility, catechin can increase conception and fertility due to its antioxidant ability and inhibition of free radicals