ABSTRACT
Gabapentin seems to be a safe and well tolerated medication for treating heroine dependence. This study examined the efficacy of gabapentin for relieving withdrawal-related pain due to heroin use. Sixty men were recruited from an inpatient psychiatric ward of Fatemieh hospital in Semnan and randomized to receive either placebo [n = 30] or gabapentin [1800 mg/day] [n = 30] for 7 days. Subjective Opioid Withdrawal Scale [SOWS] was measured as a self-administered scale for grading body pain at baseline, and on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. Mean of pain score had a significant decrease trend in both gabapentin and placebo groups. Pain severity during the most of detoxification duration was significantly lower in gabapentin group compared with the placebo group. It is suggested that gabapentin may have an effective role in removing heroin withdrawal-related pain
ABSTRACT
Vaccination has achieved significant and cost effective success in prevention of infectious disease. Although the current vaccines used are very effective and their side effects are minimal, generally no vaccine is not free from side effects. Incidence of adverse reactions after immunization may discourage people for further immunization of their children. The aim of this work was to determine the incidence of complications of vaccination in children and infants of Semnan, Iran. In a longitudinal study [prospective], all vaccinated children between September 2006 and March 2007 in 11 vaccination centers were studied. A specific questionnaire, including vaccine recipient profile, type of vaccine, birth weight, feeding and 46 adverse reactions were completed immediately after and 2,4,6,12, 18 months later. 5776 children were studied. 29% of the children showed at least one adverse reaction of vaccination. The most common adverse reactions were: fever [24%], pain at injection site [3.8%], swelling [2.5%], erythema [2.5%], induration [2.1%], and ulceration at injection site [2.1%]. Incidence of other complications was below 1%. The most dangerous complication of the vaccine was encephalitis [one case] and two cases had febrile seizures. The most cause of hospitalization was adverse reaction of MMR vaccine. Finally, of every four children, one child showed at least one complication that fever was the most common. In general, routine immunization program of Iran country against nine common infectious diseases has lower complications. This complication is mainly mild and transient and do not need any intervention by drugs. However, among these may be rare and dangerous complications such as seizures and encephalitis occur. Hence, a careful follow-up program is required to report complications of immunization