ABSTRACT
Background: Many medical students are dealing with day to day stress in their lives and they need to be both physically and mentally active to counter and overcome their daily problems. In such scenario, a non-pharmacological adjunct could prove useful to counter all of it so that they can work more efficiently. Many universities do recommend the use of peppermints and chewing gums. This study is conducted to see if any of these items actually have an influence on cognitive and physical abilities.Methods: A non-randomized controlled trial was performed on the undergraduate medical students of N.K.P. Salve Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre belonging to the age group of 18-21 years. They were given normal flavoured gum, mint flavoured gum and peppermint. A series of cognitive and physiological tests in both stressful and stress free environments were performed.Results: Consumption of peppermint in a stressful environment showed increase in attention span of the subjects and it increased the intelligence Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-R (WAIS-R) in both stress free and stressful environments. As compared to normal gum, peppermint and peppermint gum proved to be more effective. There was no significant change observed in alertness, reaction time, arithmetic ability, short term memory and fatigue index in any of the subjects.Conclusions: Peppermint has caused increase in the attention span and intelligence of medical students in a stressful work scenario. Peppermint gum was found to be more beneficial than normal gum.
ABSTRACT
Background: The main objective of this study was to evaluate prescription patterns of antihypertensives in preeclampsia patients at a tertiary care hospital in Central India.Methods: The study belongs to retrospective observational type. he study was conducted by department of Pharmacology in association of department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology department at Nkp Salve Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Lata Mangeshkar Hospital, Nagpur. Permission from Institute Ethics Committee was taken for studying the prescribing patterns of drugs. The study was conducted for a period of 6 months. Inclusion and Exclusion criteria were added.Results: The maximum number patients seen in age groups 36-41 (28.6%). The main drug prescribed in our study was Labetalol followed by methyldopa. In our study most of the patients were of moderate and mild type corresponding to 48% and 32% respectively and only 20% of patients belong to severe cases. In our study highest number of patients was seen in second gravida i.e. 33.33%.Conclusions: Labetalol was the most common anti hypertensive prescribed in pre eclampsia patients. Rationale prescribing of drugs were done.
ABSTRACT
Background: Hypertension and diabetes mellitus are both chronic disorders and when they occur as co-morbidities create havoc by presenting with a plethora of morbidity and mortality. Both require drug treatment over a long period of time, which calls for stringent analysis of prescribing trends of the same. Objectives: The present study was intended to analyze prescribing pattern and establish prescribing trends of anti-hypertensive drugs (AHD) in hypertensive diabetic patients. Methods: The present study was a record based, randomized, non-interventional study of 2 years duration conducted at a tertiary care hospital of central India. Prescriptions from 400 case records of hypertensive diabetics were obtained from the medical record section. Demographic details, blood pressure, and AHDs prescribed were systematically entered in pre-validated case record form. All data were thoroughly analyzed for fallacies and appropriateness. Results: Among 400 patients, 221 were males, and 179 were females. Monotherapy was used in 366 (91.5%) patients while combination therapy was used in 34 (8.5%) patients. Most commonly used combination was angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI)+calcium channel blocker (CCB), while in monotherapy CCB≥ACEI>beta blocker>diuretic>angiotensin II receptor blocker were most commonly prescribed. Conclusion: The present study represents trend and attitude of physicians in prescribing AHDs. On comparing with Joint National Committee 7 guidelines, the majority of the cases deviated from the guidelines, mostly in a choice of AHDs and Fixed dose combination.