Spiritual care at the end of life in the Islamic context, a systematic review

According to the statistics over 30000 deaths occur annually in Iran due to cancer with an incidence of over 70000 new cases; this growing rate is similar to the developing world. These figures do not take into account other chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart failure, gastro-intestinal disorders, chronic neurological disorders and lung disease, which all warrant palliative care. A systematic review was conducted until the end of 2007, to find out the ways that palliative care services are provided for Muslim patients suffering from cancer. Only three papers met the criteria as being original research either quantitative or qualitative, published during the last 10 years. Our findings conceded that very few papers are available in Islamic context about spiritual care at the end of life, where only one was quantitative. While cancer is rapidly increasing specially in developing world, the need of terminally ill patients with other conditions should be equally considered. Despite the fact that spirituality in Islamic societies exists profoundly, spiritual care must be institutionalised for patients who are in most need at their end of life, which needs more evidence

Traditional and complementary/alternative medicine [TCAM] in medical theses [1991-2006]

To assess TCAM in medical theses during the recent 15 years in medical schools of Tehran, Iran. All medical theses in 4 main medical schools [Iran, Shahid Beheshti, Shahed and Tehran medical schools] registered during 1991-2006 were assessed to find subjects related to TCAM. Theses were evaluated regarding the type of study, grade/ specialty of author and type of TCAM. In all, 28344 medical theses have been registered during the study period. Of these, 110 theses [3.88 per 1000] were related to TCAM. There was a statistically significant increasing trend in the proportion of TCAM subjects [P < 0.001, X < sup > 2 < /sup > for trends=42.7]. Among the TCAM studies, 37.3 percent were related to clinical aspects. The proportion of clinical topics was significantly higher for specialized degrees than the general medicine [P < 0.001]. Even though there was an increasing trend during recent years, the proportion of TCAM subjects was relatively low. Re-orienting medical students could play an important role in increasing the production of scientific evidences on the topic