Ginkgo biloba for improvement of memory and quality of life in multiple sclerosis: an open trial

Multiple sclerosis [MS] is a chronic demyelinating disease that can affect cognitive function. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of Ginkgo biloba [GB] on improvement of memory impairment and quality of life in patients with MS. This study was an 8-week, open study of patients with MS. Thirty patients was recruited from a variety of outpatient settings. All participants met McDonald's diagnostic criteria for MS and had Wechsler score of<80. All subjects received Ginkgo 240 mg/day, TDS except one that received 120 mg/day, TDS due to history of gastritis Participants were assessed by Wechsler memory scale, MSIS-29 test and Beck Depression Inventory [BDI] which measure memory, quality of life and depression respectively at baseline and after 8 weeks of treatment. Administration of Ginkgo significantly improved Wechsler and MSIS-29 scores. Subjects who were less impaired at baseline on the Wechsler test experienced more improvement with GB. The present study indicates Ginkgo biloba as a very well tolerated medication for improvement of cognitive impairments in people suffering from MS

[ evaluation of morphine based CPP on the astrocytes of male rat's dentate gyrus]

Morphological alterations of hippocampus and dentate gyrus due to opium were reported in humans and animals. Also other evidences have shown that astrocytes actively participate in synaptic plasticity. This study was done to determine the conditioning place preference [CPP] on astrocytes number of Rat dentate gyrus by immunohistochemical technique. In this experimental study, 48 male Wistar Rat weighted average 220- 250 g were used. For behavioural tests, Rats divided into eight experimental groups. The Rats were received morphine at different doses [2.5, 5, 7.5 mg/kg] for three days by subcutaneous injection and sham groups, received saline dose [1 mg/kg] and then CPP test in them were investigated. 48 hours after behavioural testing animals were decapitated under chloroform anesthesia and their brains fixed and after tissue processing, slices stained with immunohistochemistery techniques. For morphometric study PTAH staining of astrocytes was used. The most dose responses of morphine was observed in 7.5mg/kg. The number of astrocytes in the controls [20.627 +/- 6.129] was similar to control-saline group [17.339 +/- 4.71]. This difference was not significant, while the difference in the number of astrocytes in control group with morphine-treated experimental groups was significant [P<0.05]. We concluded that the phenomenon of conditioned place preference induced by morphine can cause a significant increase in the number of astrocytes of sham and experimental groups compared to controls

[Psychiatric symptoms in patients with dementia: prevalence and their relationship with caregiver burden]

Although it is important to study the association between caregiver burden and individual with dementia, a little has been paid attention to this issue in Iranian population therefore the aim of study was to investigate the frequency of psychiatric symptoms and patients with dementia and caregiver burden associated with individual with dementia. In this study 84 patients who had referred to Iran Alzheimer's Association, along with their caregivers were included in our study. Iranian Version of Caregiver Burden and NPI questionnaires were employed. Factors affecting factors on burden was analyzed by multivariate linear regression. Our findings showed that there was at least one psychiatric disorder in all patients. Among all psychiatric symptoms delusion and elation had the highest and lowest rates with 39.3 and 2.4 percentages, respectively. Linear regression indicated that "indifference" and "irritability" symptoms were the effective psychiatric symptoms on the amount of burden placed on the caregivers. The symptom frequency of irritability and other symptoms showed a statistically significant positive correlation with caregiver's NPI-D score. These findings suggest that improvement of treatments for delusions, irritability among dementia patients may reduce caregiver burden

[Performing content validation process in development of questionnaires]

Content validity is the first type of validity that has to be ensured during the design of a tool. Its prerequisite for other validities and its close relationship with the tool reliability place it in a vital position in the questionnaire design. However, since it has not been paid enough attention in national publications therefore in this paper we will explain the different steps in preparing an appropriate content for questionnaires and also their assessment. The steps of the content validation process for designing valid and reliable questionnaires have been explained in this paper: development [domain identification, items generation and instrument construction], Judgment - quantification [determining the inter rater agreement among experts, determining the clarity and relevancy of each of the questions along with the clarity, relevancy and comprehensiveness of the tool as a whole] have been explained. The benefits of performing the content validation in questionnaire development are not increasing the possibility of accessing desirable content validity indexes [relevancy, clarity, and comprehensiveness] only, but also improving the Reliability indexes of tool and decreasing need for resources [financial and temporal] are the other benefits of this approach. Although subjective nature of experts' responses is the problematic issue in this process but the more quantitative steps of the content validation has reduced considerable part of previous worries about this process. These issues explain why content validation has become a suitable process for questionnaire

Association between enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense with Alzheimer disease

The etiopathogenesis of dementia in Alzheimer's disease [AD] is still unclear. However, long-term oxidative stress is believed to be one of the major contributing factors in progression of neuronal degeneration and decline of cognitive function in AD. In order to assess the presence of oxidative stress in AD, we examined the enzymatic activities of the erythrocyte Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase [Cu-Zn SOD], glutathione peroxidase [GSH-Px], catalase [CAT], and plasma level of total antioxidant status [TAS] in AD and control groups [age and sex-matched]. The results showed that the Cu-Zn SOD activity was significantly higher and the level of GSH-Px and TAS activities were significantly lower in AD subjects than that in the control group [2111 +/- 324 U/grHb, 43.7 +/- 11.6 U/grHb, and 1.17 +/- 0.23 mmol/L compared with 1371 +/- 211 U/gHb; t= -2.17, p=0.036, 56.3 +/- 9.5 U/gHb; t=3.8, p=0.014, and 1.54 +/- 0.2 mmol/L; t=11.18, P<0.001, respectively]. While, the erythrocyte CAT activity was lower in AD subjects compared to the control group, the difference was not statistically significant [t=1.3, P=0.15]. These findings support the idea that the oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis underlying AD neurodegeneration. In addition, the enzymatic activity of the erythrocyte Cu-Zn SOD and GSH-Px and the plasma level of TAS can be used as a measure of the oxidative stress and a marker for pathological changes in the brain of patients with AD