[Child abuse prevalence among addicts referred to the Rafsanjan addiction withdrawal center in 2005]

Child abuse and neglect of children referred to the physical, psychological, emotional or sexual abuse, these circumstances result in detrimental impacts on health, welfare and education of children. Based on these considerations, the present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of child abuse among addicts referred to the Rafsanjan Addiction Withdrawal Center in 2005. In this cross sectional study, 648 addicts randomly selected. A questionnaire was completed for each particpant and the data were then analysed using X[2] test. The findings of this study showed that 81.9% of the participants were child abusers and 87.8% of them were 41-60 years old. The percentages of child abuse found in the participants with a history of parenteral drug-abuse, addiction in their families, divorce, physical harassment, and neglect during their childhood were 93.3%, 89%, 95%, 90.9% and 87.9% respectively. Slapping [17.86%] and deprivation of talking and attention [16.44%] were the most common type of physical child abuse and neglect. In 20.82% cases, the child abuse occurred at the withdrawal period of addiction. The most frequent feelings after child abuse for the child abusers were regret and sadness [36.87% and 35.25% respectively]. This study showed that there is a direct relationship between child abuse and addiction to opiates. Also there are other factors related to child abuse including level of education, economic situation, a history of addiction and divorce in the family of child abuse victims. Therefore, the necessity of an organized care system for children and addicted parents and regulating of supportive rules are obvious and of superme value

[ effects of low doses of diagnostic x-rays on cellular and humoral immunological responses in balb/c mice]

The immunosuppressive effects of high doses of ionizing radiation have long been known. Recently, in human and experimental animal models it has been reported that low dose radiation may have immunostimulatory effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of low doses of diagnostic X-ray on cell mediated and humoral immune responses in a Balb/c animal model. In this experimental study, three groups of male Balb/c mice were exposed once, twice and three times to 30 mGy X-ray radiation. Two to 4hrs after the irradiation, the delayed type hypersensitivity [DTH] and humoral responses to sheep red blood cell [SRBC] were measured and compared to the responses of sham and control groups. The mean titer of anti-SRBC antibodies in two-times irradiated [74.66 +/- 26.12] and three-times irradiated [128 +/- 70.1] groups were significantly higher than those of the control [26.66 +/- 8.26] and sham [28.8 +/- 20.86] groups [p<0.001]. However, no significant differences were observed between the mean titer of anti-SRBC antibodies in one-time irradiated [22.4 +/- 8.76] and either control or sham groups. Similarly, comparing DTH responses showed that the differences between either two-times irradiated [12.2 +/- 3.9] or three times-irradiated [6.9 +/- 3.7] and control [4 +/- 0.2] or sham [4.3 +/- 3] groups was statistically significant [p<0.001]. Theses results showed that twice and three-times irradiated mice demonstrated significant stimulatory effects on both DTH and antibody responses. However, one-time irradiated animals did not exhibit any bio-positive effect on DTH and humoral responses. Moreover, no statistically significant difference was observed between the DTH and antibody responses of two-times and three-times irradiated mice