Cortisol-a key factor to the understanding of the adjustment to childhood cancer

Malignancy and its treatments could cause disturbance in homeostasis of body such as cortisol secretion. The present study has investigated the effects of cortisol level imbalance in behavioral and emotional adjustments. Seventy-eight children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia [ALL] have involved in this study. Their salivary cortisol level, which were sensitive to pain and disruptive behaviors, have measured. Cortisol level effect in different periods: within duration of reaction to pain, sensitivity to pain and disruptive behaviors have evaluated. In addition abnormal regulation of cortisol levels have shown a very strong relationship between sensitivity to pain and the disruptive behaviors. Cortisol suppression was responsible for adjustment by the participants to stressful conditions. Previous investigations have shown that there is a low reaction to stressor which decreases the vitality as well as impairing a negative memory in low cortisol levels. The findings of the present study demonstrated a nonlinear relation between cortisol level and sensitivity to pain as well as disruptive behaviors. Therefore, regulation of cortisol- up and down- is predisposed to maladjustment

Emotional regulation and adjustment to childhood cancer: role of the biological, psychological and social regulators on pediatric oncology adjustment

Children with cancer should deal with difficult situations such as undergoing multimodal treatment. Emotion Regulation Mechanisms [ERM] could be more effective for childhood cancer adaptation. The main purpose of this study was examination a number of the biological, psychological and social emotion regulators on adjustment to pediatric oncology. In this study, 98 children [39 girls and 59 boys] have participated that diagnosed as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia [ALL] cases along with their mothers. The participants were between 8 to 12 years old. Salivary cortisol, cognitive emotion regulation, children's level of inhibition, maternal positivity and Beck Depression Inventory have been applied for evaluation of Emotion Regulation [ER] while Cancer-Specific Stress and Coping, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, anxiety-depression scales and vitality test have all used for assessing the Emotional Adjustment [EA]. Using the canonical correlation has been showing significant relation between predictors of ER and EA. Cortisol level and mother's depression have played the most important role in above correlation. Variation of cortisol level has identified by its various effects on the mother's behavioral system depression, cognitive strategies and emotional inhibition; would determine the rate of coping with cancer, resiliency and vitality

effect of sociostructural and collaborative decision-making on diabetes self-management

Diabetic self-management is important for controlling the diabetes complications and promoting health-related quality of life in these patients. The objective of this study was to examine a hypothetical model regarding influences of sociostructural determinants, collaborative decision-making and patient's beliefs system on diabetes self-management. In a cross-sectional descriptive study from Dec 2010 to Mar 2010, 500 patients of Iranian adult patients with type II diabetes attended the outpatient diabetic clinics of the Shariati Hospital in Tehran were selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected by The Demographical Information, Social- Economical Status and Diabetic History Questionnaire and eleven self-reported scales of this research. Structural equation modeling [SEM] with LIZREL software applied for data analysis. The modified model had a desirable fitness to the observed data. Patient's beliefs system directly influenced the diabetes self-management. Sociostructural determinants influenced diabetes self-management indirectly via collaborative decision-making and Patient's beliefs system. In addition, collaborative decision-making significantly influenced patient's beliefs system that thereby impacted diabetes self-management. Sociostructural determinants, collaborative decision-making and patient's beliefs system are integrated and cooperatively affect on diabetes self-management. Comprehensive intervention schedules required to improve these agents for encouragement the type II diabetes self-management

[Predictive role of self-efficacy, belief of treatment effectiveness and social support in diabetes mellitus self-management]

The aim of this research was to study the predictive role of self-efficacy, belief of treatment effectiveness, social support and doctor-patient relationship on diabetes Mellitus self-management. 500 type II diabetes outpatients [245 men and 255 women] presenting to Shariati Hospital in Tehran were selected by convenience sampling. The subjects completed the scales related to diabetic self-care, self-efficacy, belief of treatment effectiveness, social support and doctor-patient relationship. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. There was a significant and positive relationship between self-efficacy, belief of treatment effectiveness, doctor-patient relationship, social support and diabetes self-management [p<0.001]. Self-efficacy, belief of treatment effectiveness and social support were capable of predicting diabetes self-management variance significantly [F=1.326, df=3 and 310, p<0.001] and explain 89% of diabetes self-management. Belief of treatment effectiveness, social support and especially, self-efficacy, are important self-management activities in diabetes Mellitus. Therefore, provision of improvement and enrichment programs for self-efficacy, are helpful for the improvement of self-care behaviors and the reduction of diabetes Mellitus associated harm

[Study the relationship of anxiety and anger with chronic hypertension]

Hypertension is one of the most popular and important threats to human health. Almost one-fourth of all deaths in the elderly people is due to hypertension or its related side effects. Hypertension is mostly without any sign, but has some side effects, such as cardiomyopathy, stroke, and renal failure. In this research, the relationship of anxiety and anger with hypertension was studied. In this descriptive-analytic study, from people presented to the medical centers of Islamic Azad University, Tehran Medical Branch, 130 patients suffering from hypertension, as case group, and 100 healthy people, as the control group, were selected. They were given two tests of multi-systematic anxiety test and multi-dimensional anger test. the results were analyzed by t-test. This study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between anxiety and chronic hypertension in all the cognitive, perceptive, behavioral, and physical aspects. There was also a significant relationship between anger and chronic hypertension in aggression, aggressive situations, aggressive view and internal anger. But, there was no significant relationship between observed among external anger and chronic hypertension. This study demonstrated that anxiety and anger is significantly higher in chronic hypertensive patients compared with healthy people. It is concluded that there is relationship between anxiety and anger with chronic hypertension