Effectiveness of a diabetes education and intervention program on blood glucose control for patients with type 2 diabetes in a Turkish community.

This study was undertaken to determine the effects of patient education and other interventions (regular exercise and diet), combined with existing oral antidiabetic therapy, on blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Two out of 16 primary health care centers present in Elazig, an eastern Turkish city, were randomly selected for this study; the patients had type 2 DM, lived in the service area of these health centers. Of a total of 100 participants, 33 were instructed to follow the standard diet for type 2 DM patients, 28 performed exercise in addition to the standard diet, and 39 did not participate in either exercise or follow the diabetic diet; they served as the control group. The percentage of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA(1C)) was measured before and after the 8-week program and comparisons between the groups were made. At the beginning of the program, the HbA(1C) percentage in the diet-plus-exercise group (9.9 +/- 2.6%) was higher than in the diet (7.8 +/- 2.2%) and control groups (7.5 +/- 2.1%). After the intervention program, the HbA(1C) value of the control group had not changed significantly, while the most dramatic change in this value was obtained in the diet + exercise group, which was significantly reduced to 7.9 +/- 1.5%. The results of this 8-week intervention program indicate that a diabetes education and intervention program involving the combination of exercise and diet enhanced the effectiveness oral therapy on blood glucose control in patients with type 2 DM.

Auditory P300 Event-Related Potentials in Fibromyalgia Patients

This study assessed the cognitive brain function measured by the cognitive P300 auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in female fibromyalgia (FM) patients and compared the results with those from healthy age and education-matched controls. The relationship of the P300 potentials to the pain threshold of patients was also investigated. The P300 component of the auditory ERPs were studied in 11 female FM patients and 10 age and education-matched healthy controls. None of the patients were taking antidepressants such as amitriptyline or serotonin-reuptake inhibitors. The P300 latencies of the patients were not significantly different whereas the N2P3 amplitudes were significantly lower than the controls. The P300 latencies in the patients negatively correlated with the total myalgic scores (TMS) (r= -0.73) and the control point scores (CPS) (r=-0.85). On the other hand, the P300 amplitudes showed a significant correlation with the TMS (r=0.61) and the CPS (r=0.60). There was no significant correlation between the anxiety and depression scores with the P300 latency or amplitudes. These results showed cognitive impairment, which was mainly expressed by the lower N2P3 amplitudes in patients with FM, and its clinical relevance requires further research.