The Effects of Cognitive – Behavior Therapy and Drug Therapy on Quality of Life and Symptoms of Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Abstract: Background & Aims: Psychological treatment and the efficacy of drug therapy are considered to be useful in quality of life and symptoms of patients with irritable bowel syndrome. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of cognitive-behavior therapy associated with drug therapy in comparison to drug therapy alone on the quality of life and symptoms of IBS patients with diarrhea predominance. Method: This study was a randomized clinical trial on 64 IBS patients. The patients were selected according to Rome-III criteria, and were divided into the two groups. Bowel Symptoms Severity and Frequency Scale (BSS-FS) and Quality Of Life (QOL-IBS) were used for evaluation of patients’ symptoms. The first group underwent cognitive-behavior therapy with medication therapy, and the second group only received medication. Data were analyzed using analysis of multiple covariances (MANCOVA). Results: The two groups showed significant difference in the QOL-IBS in post treatment and follow-up stages (P 0.05). Conclusion: Cognitive-behavior therapy associated with drug therapy can be useful in IBS patients with diarrhea predominance. However, stopping this treatment may lead to recurrence of the symptoms. Keywords: Neck muscles, Forward head posture, Craniovertebral angle, Electromyography, Pressure Bio-feedback devic

The effect of quality of life therapy (QOLT) on mental health for the families of chronic psychotic patients

Background and aims: One of the important stresses in the family is the fact that a family member suffers from a mental illness. It not only has a negative effect on the patient, but also has a lot of psychological consequences on the patient's family. This research examines (studies) the effect of quality of life therapy (QOLT) on mental health for the families of chronic psychotic patients. Methods: This is a semi-experimental research in pretest-posttest with the control group. The samples were 60 individuals from families who had chronic psychopathic patients, and were selected randomly from support center by Behzisti organization in Shahrekord. The subjects were divided into two groups containing 30 individuals in each group, randomly, and then they got homogenous according to demographic characteristics. The used tools were checklist about general health GHQ-28, performed before and after treatment on subject. The experimental group treated based on quality of life for 8 sessions and each session for 2 hours, but the control group received no treatment. The obtained data were analyzed using co-variance statistic test by SPSS. Results: According to the results, quality of life therapy improves mental health in the families of chronic psychotic patients, that is, there is a significant difference between two groups in posttest and after intervention in physical signs, anxiety, insomnia, social insufficient interaction, and depression as mental health subscales (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to results, quality of life therapy can be used to empower mental health in the families of chronic psychotic patients

The effectiveness of knowledge-based cognitive therapy on resilience of spouses of schizophrenic patients

Background and aims: The spouses of people with schizophrenia experience much stress due to their spouses' disease, which leads to certain problems and decreased adjustability and efficiency in them. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on resilience in schizophrenia patients. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 40 wives of patients with schizophrenia (20 assigned to experimental group and 20 to control group) whose husbands were kept in rehabilitation centers for mental disorders and they were enrolled according to cluster sampling. In the experimental group, the therapeutic protocol of MBCT was conducted as intervention. Study instrument was Connor and Davidson Resilience Scale. Data were analyzed by ANCOVA in SPSS. Results: The results showed that mean resilience score in the post-test of the experimental group (77.95±4.71) was much higher than that of the control group (71.75±5.81). There was a significant difference in the mean resilience score at post-test between the experimental and control groups (P<0.05). Conclusion: Training MBCT strategies was effective on resilience in the wives of schizophrenia patients. Therefore, this approach can be incorporated into mental health-related interventions for the families of patients with psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia

Epigallocatechin gallate/layered double hydroxide nanohybrids: Preparation, characterization, and in vitro anti-tumor study

In recent years, nanotechnology in merging with biotechnology has been employed in the area of cancer management to overcome the challenges of chemopreventive strategies in order to gain promising results. Since most biological processes occur in nano scale, nanoparticles can act as carriers of certain drugs or agents to deliver it to specific cells or targets. In this study, we intercalated Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate (EGCG), the most abundant polyphenol in green tea, into Ca/Al-NO3 Layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles, and evaluated its efficacy compared to EGCG alone on PC3 cell line. The EGCG loaded LDH nanohybrids were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nanosizer analyses. The anticancer activity of the EGCG-loaded LDH was investigated in prostate cancer cell line (PC3) while the release behavior of EGCG from LDH was observed at pH 7.45 and 4.25. Besides enhancing of apoptotic activity of EGCG, the results showed that intercalation of EGCG into LDH can improve the anti-tumor activity of EGCG over 5-fold dose advantages in in-vitro system. Subsequently, the in-vitro release data showed that EGCG-loaded LDH had longer release duration compared to physical mixture, and the mechanism of diffusion through the particle was rate-limiting step. Acidic attack was responsible for faster release of EGCG molecules from LDH at pH of 4.25 compared to pH of 7.4. The results showed that Ca/Al-LDH nanoparticles could be considered as an effective inorganic host matrix for the delivery of EGCG to PC3 cells with controlled release properties. © 2015 Shafiei et al.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Biological Evaluation of a Novel Tissue Engineering Scaffold of Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs)

Bone Tissue Engineering (BTE) Composed of Three Main Parts: Scaffold, Cells and Signaling Factors. Several Materials and Composites Are Suggested as a Scaffold for BTE. Biocompatibility is One of the Most Important Property of a BTE Scaffold. in This Work Synthesis of a Novel Nanocomposite Including Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) and Gelatin is Carried Out and its Biological Properties Were Studied. the Co-Precipitation (PH=11) Method Was Used to Prepare the LDH Powder, using Calcium Nitrate, Magesium Nitrate and Aluminum Nitrate Salts as Starting Materials. the Resulted Precipitates Were Dried. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) Analyses Were Used to Characterize the Synthesized Powders. the Results Demonstrated the Presence of Nanocrystals of Ca-LDH and Mg-LDH as Hexagonal and Layered Morphology. the Obtained Powders Were Composed to Gelatin Via Solvent Casting Method Then Freez Dried. the Scaffold Was Prepared Via Membrane Lamination Method from the Resulted Layers that Linked Together with Gelatin as Binder. in Order to Investigate the Scaffold Cytotoxicity MTT Assay Was Done with a Osteosarcoma Cell Line. No Toxic Response Was Observed in Specimens. as a Major Result, It Was Demonstrated that the Specimen Showed a Significant Cellular Response. Then Osteosarcoma Cells Were Cultured for 7-Day and 14-Day Extract of Powders. the Composites Osteoconductivity Was Investigate with Cells Alkaline Phosphatase Extraction. the Results Demonstrated that the Ca-LDH/gelatin Composite Scaffold Has a Good Potential for Bone Tissue Engineering Applications and Mg-LDH Specimen Has a Better Osteconductivity. © (2012) Trans Tech Publications