effect of assertive training techniques on improving coping skills of nurses in psychiatric set up

Psychiatric mental health nurses are confronted with the daily responsibility of assessing, intervening and evaluating client responses to stress and client interactions. They need to identify the meaning of their own stress and develop strategies that increase personal and professional growth. Some nurses may have learned to express their needs honestly to use anger constructively, to improve personal and work relation ships and to build self-confidence through assertive behavior. But others still struggle with being assertive, perhaps because they don't believe they have the right to be assertive, they are anxious about asserting themselves or they don't know how to be assertive Learning assertive techniques are considered as tools for coping skills with a variety of life stressors. Increasing assertive behavior becomes an expression of person's feelings. So the aim of this study was to assess the effects of assertive training techniques on coping skills of nurses working in psychiatric setup. The study was conducted on nurses at Tanta Mental Health Hospital, Ministry of Health [n=58]. Data were collected using four tools, Assessment of Coping Skill inventory, Assertiveness inventory, 5 selected situations, 5 selected clinical situations used only as a post-test. The study showed that a significant change was found in level of assertiveness responses and coping responses of the studied nurses before and after training. The assertiveness training affect on coping level of the nurses significantly as the coping level of nurses has improved after the training. This revealed that the assertiveness training helped nurses to communicate and to be more tolerant to their patients in different situations

Changes in sexual function in epileptics

This study was conducted on forty epileptic patients, twenty with generalized tonic-clonic seizures, twenty with complex partial seizures and twenty controls. All patients were examined clinically, including detailed information concerning their sexual functions, [libidinous feelings, erotic fantasies, frequency of arousal and orgasm]. It was found that hyposexuality is significantly more common in epileptics compared to the controls and in complex partial seizure patients compared to generalized tonic-clonic seizure patients. The commonest pattern encountered was found to be an impaired erection but a normal libido. In this study hyposexuality was seen to be more common when the age of onset of illness occurred before puberty, and thus being of long duration. Frequency of fits and regimen of therapy has no significant correlation

Effect of antidepressants on liver functions

This work was done to evaluate the effects of the commonly used antidepressants in Egypt on liver functions. Sixty depressed patients were divided into three main groups. The first group [30 patients] received tricyclic antidepressants, half of them were put on imipramine and the other half on amitriptyline. The second group [15 patients] received tetracyclic maprotiline. The 3rd group [15 patients] was put on MAOI tranylcypromine. All patients were submitted to liver function tests before treatment. The same tests were evaluated twice after treatment; the first time after one month of treatment and re-assessment was done after two months of antidepressant therapy. The dosage used of all drugs was larger in the second month of treatment than the first month. The effects of the commonly used antidepressants on liver function tests after one and two months of treatment were not significant for each drug. The effects of the studied antidepressants on liver function tests were not dose-related

anticholinergic effects of the commonly used antidepressants

This study included 120 patients with major depressive disorder, divided into three groups: Group I: 60 patients received tricyclic antidepressants [half of them were put on amitriptyline and the other half on imipramine]. Group II: 30 patients received tetracyclic antidepressant maprotiline. Group III: 30 patients received monoamine oxidase inhibitor tranylcypromine. To evaluate the anticholinergic effects, all patients were submitted to the following [before and after 6 days of using antidepressants]: A] Estimation of volume of salivary secretion. B] Estimation of concentration of salivary secretion: 1. Concentrotion and autput of amylase enayme in salivary secretion 2. Concentration and output of bicarbonate in salivary secretion. C] Estimation of serum cholinesterase enzyme. The results revealed the following: - The four drugs have decreasing effect on salivary juice volume which could be used as indicator for severity of anticholinergic activity. Tricyclics have more significant lowering of salivary volume than the other two. The anticholinergic effects of antidepressants are not only due to the relative affinity of these drugs for muscarine receptors [it interferes with the action of acetylcholine] as it was believed before, but it could be also attributed to the increase in serum cholinesterase enzyme which leads to more destruction of acetylcholine. The increased concentrations of salivary amylase and bicarbonate could be ascribed to the increase in norepinephrine which accompanies using these drugs

Comparative study of the effects of the commonly used antidepressants on the cardiovascular system

This study included 120 patients with major depressive disorder, divided into three groups. Group I: 60 patients received tricyclic antidepressants [half of them were put on amitriptyline and the other half on imipramine]. Group II: 30 patients received tetracyclic antidepressant maprotiline. Group III: 30 patients received mononamine oxidase inhibitor tranylcypromine. Before and after 6 weeks of treatment, all patients were submitted to [a] Measurement of blood pressure [both supine and standing] and [b] EGG. The results revealed: 1-Tricyclic antidepressants [amitriptyline and imipramine] have significant effects on ECG [increase in heart rate, prolongation of P-R interval and QTc time]. 2-Imipramine has significant increasing effect on the degree of orthostatic hypotension while the other 3 drugs have non-significant increase. 3- The only significant cardiovascular effect of maprotiline was decreased amplitude of T-wave. 4- Tranylcypromine was the least cardiotoxic [except significant lowering of supine blood pressure]

Effect of antidepressants on electroencephalography

This work was done to evaluate and compare the effects of the commonly used antidepressants in Egypt on EEG. 60 depressed patients were divided into three main groups. Thirty of them were put on tricyclic antidepressants [group I]; 15 received imipramine and a similar number amitriptyline. Group II [15 patients] were treated by the tetracyclic maprotiline. Group III [15 patients] were put on MAOI tranylcypromine. All patients were submitted to EEG before and one month after treatment