Protective effect of coenzyme Q10 on methamphetamine-induced apoptosis in adult male rats

Background: The negative consequence of methamphetamine abuse is due to neuropathologic changes in the brain, which reduces dopaminergic neurons and result in damage to different brain areas. Neurotoxicity induced by methamphetamine increases the oxidative stress and associated with neuronal apoptosis. The role of the antioxidant coenzyme Q10 probably produces its neuroprotective effects. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the protective effect of coenzyme Q10 on methamphetamine-induced apoptosis in adult male rats

Materials and Methods: Fifty Wistar eight-week adult rats randomly divided into 5 groups: Healthy control, methamphetamine injection [Meth], methamphetamine injection and CoQ10 5mg/kg treatment [Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg], methamphetamine injection and CoQ10 10mg/kg treatment [Meth+Post CoQ10 10mg/kg], methamphetamine injection and CoQ10 20mg/kg treatment [Meth+Post CoQ10 20mg/kg]. Methamphetamine with a purity of 96% with a dosage of 20 mg/kg was injected Intraperitoneal. Coenzyme Q10 for three treatment groups was injected intraperitoneally for 14 days in a dosage of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg/day. The protein expressions of Baxand Bcl2 were evaluated by western blotting technique

Results: Bax protein expression was significantly lower in Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg [p=0.010] and so Meth+Post CoQ10 10mg/kg [p=0.004] comparing to Meth group. In addition, Bcl2 protein expression was significantly higher in Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg comparing to Meth group [p=0.018]. However, there were no significant differences between control and CoQ10 treatment groups. Bax/Bcl2 ratio was significantly lower in Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg [p=0.005], Meth+Post CoQ10 10mg/kg [p=0.008] and Meth+Post CoQ10 20mg/kg [p=0.044] comparing to Meth group

Conclusion: We suggest that CoQ10 reduces the methamphetamine-induced apoptosis in the striatum of the rats through the reduction of apoptotic factors and increase of anti-apoptotic pathways

comparative study of nurses as case manager and telephone follow-up on clinical outcomes of patients with severe mental illness

Background: Providing community-based mental health services is crucial and is an agreed plan between the Iranian Mental Health Office and the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean [affiliated with WHO]. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of home-visit clinical case-management services on the hospitalization rate and other clinical outcomes in patients with severe mental illness

Methods: A total of 182 patients were randomly allocated into three groups, namely, home-visit [n=60], telephone follow-up [n=61] and as-usual care [n=61] groups. Trained nurses as clinical case-managers provided home-visit services and the telephone follow-up tasks. Hospitalization rate as a measure of recurrence, as well as burden, knowledge, general health condition of caregivers with positive/negative symptoms, satisfaction, quality of life, and social skills of the consumers were assessed as the main and secondary outcomes, respectively

Results: Most clinical variables were improved in both intervention groups compared with the control group. During the one year follow-up, the rate of rehospitalization for the telephone follow-up and as-usual groups were respectively 1.5 and 2.5 times higher than the home-visit group

Conclusion: Trained clinical case-managers are capable of providing continuous care services to patients with severe mental illness. The telephone follow-up services could also have beneficiary outcome for the consumers, their caregivers, and the health system network

Effect of group mindfulness-based stress-reduction program and conscious yoga on lifestyle, coping strategies, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures in patients with hypertension

Healthy lifestyle and ineffective coping strategies are deemed significant variables among patients with hypertension. This study attempted to determine the status of these variables following intervention via the mindfulness-based stress-reduction program [MBSRP] in patients with hypertension. This study was a randomized clinical trial. The study sample, consisting of 30 patients referring to the Hypertension Clinic of Imam Hossein Hospital in 2013, was assigned either to the intervention [recipient of the MBSRP and conscious yoga] or to the control group [recipient of yoga training]. The intervention group had 8 training sessions over 8 weeks. Lifestyle and coping strategies as well as blood pressure were measured in the intervention group before intervention and then immediately thereafter and at 2 months' follow-up and were compared to those in the control group at the same time points. The mean age of the patients in the intervention [40% women] and control [53% women] groups was 43.66 +/- 5.14 and 43.13 +/- 5.04 years, respectively. The results showed that the mean scores of lifestyle [p value < 0.05], emotion-focused coping strategies [p value < 0.001], problem-focused coping strategies [p value < 0.001], diastolic blood pressure [p value < 0.001], and systolic blood pressure [p value < 0.001] were significantly different between the intervention and control groups after the intervention. Applying an intervention based on the MBSRP may further improve the lifestyle and coping strategies of patients with hypertension

[Evaluation of prevalence of domestic violence and its role on mental health]

Domestic violence against women is a subject with considerable attention and as an important public health problem worldwide, and despite numerous studies about the consequences of domestic violence on women's mental health, there are still many unknown aspects. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of domestic violence and its role mental health in women referred to health centers under the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services in 2010-2011. A cross-sectional multistage cluster sample survey was performed on 500 patients who were referred to health centers of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and health services. In this study were age range between 15-65years and lack of depression during the life. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire on violence and SCL90. Woman was considered violated when she had given at least 1 positive answer to the related question. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis of SPSS and chi-square and Mann Whitney test. The result showed that%84.8 [424 cases] of women have experienced different types of domestic violence in life. The emotional violence with the%81.2 had the highest prevalence, and sexual and physical violence [%41.8 and%40.4 respectively] were the next category. Comparison mental state of two groups of abused and non-abused women based on nine subscales of the original SCL-90 and General Severity Index [GSI] showed that in all dimensions, the violent group's scores were much higher than the non-violent group's scores. Mann-Whitney test was showed significant differences in 9 primary symptom dimension subscales: somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychosis [P<0.01]. Domestic Violence against women persists at epidemic levels in Iran and it appears to have considerable compact on field of mental health