[Evaluation of mental health program integration into the primary health care system of Iran]

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the integration of mental health program into primary health care system. In a cross-sectional, quantitative and qualitative study, the knowledge, attitude and performance of 1209 individuals of general population, 146 behvarzes, 35 health technicians and 51 general practitioners from rural health centers of Gilan, Tehran, Meshad, Iran, Kerman and Kermanshah universities of medical sciences who were undercoverage and out of coverage of mental health program in the rural areas of selected centers, were selected by randomized cluster sampling. The data was gathered using knowledge, attitude and performance questionnaires of behvarzes, general population and general practitioners toward mental health, behvarzes' performance on training, following up and referral of mentally patients based on primary health care [PHC] program, knowledge and attitude of general population toward mental illnesses, epilepsy, mental retardation, their causes and treatments, general physicians awareness about treatment, referral and integration of mental health program into PHC, general practitioners's performance of health centers and a semi-structured questionnaire for focus group discussion sessions [FGD]. Thirty trained mental health experts from neighborhood of selected provinces, completed questionnaires and analyzed. Descriptive statistics and independent t-test were executed. There was significant difference between behvarzes in areas under coverage and out of coverage in knowledge [p

[ establishment of Iranian DNA bank for genetic and epigenetic studies in psychiatric disorders]

In most advanced countries, there are tissue, deoxyribonucleic acid [DNA] and ribonucleic acid [RNA] banks which have been made to provide samples for researchers in order to speed up genetic studies in different medical disorders. This may save time and materials in comparison to self-governing projects that usually spend months to collect samples independently. In these banks patients are cautiously diagnosed based on international diagnostic criteria. Thus, the results are more reliable than scattered studies and meta-analysis can be done with the data generated in different laboratories using the same samples. For the establishment of a DNA bank for psychiatric disorders in Iran, after clarifying the aims and signing the consent forms, 300 saliva samples were collected using Oragene DNA Kit from the patients diagnosed based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders [SCID-I]. Related data to demographics, family history, date of disorder onset, duration of disorder, drugs in use and other variables were compiled and opportunity for future contacts was set to gather more information including the course of disorders. A saliva bank for DNA extraction of 300 psychiatric patients suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, 30 ones relatives as well as 75 matched healthy control subjects for genetic and epigenetic studies was established. The opportunity for donation of DNA samples collected from Iranian psychiatric patients has been provided to be used in hundreds of national and international genetic studies