[ efficacy of cognitive behavioral group-therapy alone and plus family psycho-education on the treatment of major depression disorder symptoms in females]

Major depression is one of the common psychiatric disorders imposing negative effects on patients and their families. There are several treatment methods for depression. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of combination of cognitive behavioral group therapy, family psycho-education and medication versus medication alone on the improvement of major depression disorder. This study was a clinical trial in which using convenience sampling 60 patients with major depression admitted in Hajar Hospital Shahrekord /Iran were randomly selected. The patients were randomly allocated into three groups [n=20]. The first group underwent medication therapy as well as cognitive behavioral group therapy. The second group received medication therapy, cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education. The third group, served as the control group, only received medication therapy. Beck Depression Inventory II was applied to all three groups before and after therapeutic interventions. Our findings indicate a significant difference between control group and both cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education after therapeutic interventions. In other words, while both cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education groups showed significant difference with medication therapy group, no significant difference was found between cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education group. Medication therapy accompanied by cognitive behavioral therapies and family psychoeducation is more efficient in improving depression symptoms compared to pure medication therapy.

[ study of health, cultural and social conditions of the Chaharmahal va Bakhtiary province's, rural population in 2007, Iran]

Identifying the problems and difficulties related to rural areas can be useful and effective in future planning. Since looking into the current situation is the first step in planning economical, social and cultural development, this study was carried out with the aim of investigating aspects of health, cultural and social conditions of the rural population of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiary province. In this descriptive-cross sectional study 1638 family guardians were chosen through simple sampling. Around 90 villages were chosen for this research [the same area in which the Tarhe Hejrat was carried out in the year 2008]. The data was gathered using multi-sectional questionnaires [Cronbach's Alpha 89%] with 47 questions including demographic information, state of education, employment, financial state, family planning, diet, hypertension, smoking and personal hygiene and was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Unemployment in the rural areas was 31.6%. 86% had their own homes, 30% had a personal car and 87% had bathrooms in their homes. 43.22% wished to emigrate. The awareness of problems arising from not paying attention to family planning was 75.74% and the most practiced method was using oral contraceptive pills [45.1%]. The biggest amount of red meat [46.09%], chicken [36.23%] and fish [62.56%] intake was 1 to 5 times a month. The amount of people suffering from hypertension was 26.25%. Knowledge of the side effects of smoking was 91.81% and the average age of smokers was 57.81 +/- 14.51. Families with a child aged fewer than 10 who had been in an accident were 16.65% and males had the most accidents [70%]. The social, cultural and health status of the people living in the country-side in the province is not at its optimal level in certain aspects. Finding the causes however, requires more research

[Exposure rate of cardiovascular risk factors among clients of health-care clinics in Kashan, Autumn 2010]

Background and aim: Cardiovascular diseases are noncontiguous diseases which are caused by various factors. One of the most important of these factors is an unhealthy lifestyle. In Iran this disease has been one of the problems of this late decade and in other words, in comparison with the 10 main causes of death in 2009, it has been the most prevalent death factor in Kashan. The main purpose of this research, considering this problem, was investigating the encountering rate of cardiovascular risk factors in Kashan

Methods: This descriptive study was based on 336 clients who were selected through cluster sampling in health-care clinics in Kashan. The data was gathered through filling out questionnaires. These questionnaires consisted of five separate parts on information about: demographic, disease background, nutrition, smoking and physical activity. The research data was analyzed using Chi-square test

Results: BMI mean among the samples was 25.69. The common and main risk factor among these people include: consuming fried food [%97.9], low consumption of fish [%90.8], low consumption of grain [%79.8], low consumption of egg [%75.3], high consumption of meat [%69./3], high consumption of sweet or candy [%67.9], eating fatty food [%66.7] and with little physical activity [%66.4]. There are significant relationships between life style and gender [P=0.016] and education [P=0.019], also physical activity and job [P=0.013]

Conclusion: According to the obtained results in this study, the client's life styles were not in an appropriate condition. So there is a need to pay more attention to inform people to reduce the amount of fried food, meat, fatty food and sweet and increase the balanced amounts of fish, grain and cereal, egg, fruit, vegetable in their diets. It is also recommended that they should increase body activities and decrease smoking

[ prevalence of depression among the elderly population of shaystegan and Jahandidegan nursing homes in Shahrekord]

The aging of the society and the senility highlights the issues related to this period of life. Depression is a common problem in elderly period. This study aimed to investigate the level of depression among the elderly population. In this descriptive-analytical study, all the residents of Shaystegan and Jahandidegan nursing homes, which were under the supervision of the State Welfare Organization in Shahrekord, were studied. The data was collected using the standard Beck questionnaire for depression and analyzed using Pearson correlation, Mann-Whitney and Cruscal-valis tests. The average age of the study population was 68.7 +/- 16.1 year and the average depression scale was 23.11 +/- 9.2. Based on the results, 64.9% were slightly depressed, 15.8% were moderately depressed, 15.8% showed no sign of depression and only 3.5% were severely depressed. According to these findings, significant relationship was seen between age, marital status and the level of depression [P<0.05]. Slight depression and depression with no medical symptoms are common problems among the elderly peoples. Therefore, primary preventative measures are necessary to take in consideration

[Knowledge, attitude and practice of married men referring to health centers of Shahre-Kord on family planning]

Fulfilling family planning programs has a very important role in the reduction of fertility resulting in solving population problems. Women have been the subject of the most of these studies, while men have been less discussed. The aim of this study is to determine men's knowledge, attitude and practice on family planning in health centers of Shahre-kord. Cross-sectional methods was used and 402 men were selected through the simple sampling. Questionnaires were completed by professional interviewers. SPSS was used to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that 100% of men know at least one of the family planning methods. The highest knowledge was related to pills [96.3%]. Conviction on the necessity of family planning programmes was reported by 99.1% of the people. At least one method of family planning was used by one of the couples in 89.6% cases. At the time of study, 83.1% of people were using one of the family planning methods. The most common method used by the people was the pills, reported by 57.7% of the cases. On the whole, the research demonstrates that 34.4% have high ,%54 have reasonable and%23 have low knowledge. In terms of attitudes of men towards family planning methods,%6.5 have a positive,%68.2 medium and%7 have low conviction.%12.7 use these methods in large,%69.7 in medium,%17.2 in low scales. There is a significant relationship between KAP of men and age, time of marriage, occupation, level of education and length of their marriage [p<0.001]. This research concludes that although men have high knowledge about family planning, they do not use it in real life very often. As a result, it is necessary to consider them as a target group in family planning programs. In addition, men's family planning services should be integrated into family planning programs which are put forward by the National Health System Network