[Experiences of stress in rescued women from suicide]

Introduction: Long term or excessive stress is harmful for human life. It causes behavior and emotional changes. It plays a main role in people suicide. Women not only are vulnerable in society but also face more stresses. Recognizing the nature of these experiences is necessary to find health and safety needs, also prevention of suicide effects. Experiences of stress in rescued from suicide and the nurses play a basic role to support the women to maintenance and promote their health. The study aimed to explore experiences of stress in rescued women from suicide

Methods: This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. Information resources include women saved from suicide who were confined to bed in hospitals of Isfahan Medical Sciences University. Purposive Sampling had been continued to saturate information. Finally 10 people had participated in this study. Data was collected by using in-depth interviewing and was analyzed by "Colaizy" method. We tried to analyze qualitative data based on valid criteria

Results: The findings of this research were summarized into four core concepts: life in stress that created from two cluster of internal and external stress, confront against stress have two clusters that included of adaptation and in adaptation behavior

Conclusion: Findings of this study showed that participants by using effective adaptation behaviors in critical conditions or confront against tremendous stresses [specially, resorting to spirituality's experiences] had lower injuries than the others. In stressful life condition, we should not only decrease stresses but also increase adaptation skills such as spirituality's belief. Learning suitable adaptation methods and preventing suicide, needs wide and comprehensive programming in social, family and economical fields

Comparing bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with and without vertebral fracture and its value in recognizing high-risk individuals

Vertebral fracture, the hallmark of osteoporosis, usually occurs in postmenopausal women with low bone mineral density [BMD]. The aim this study was to determine which BMD parameter can best predict women at high risk of fracture. BMD values at the spine and femoral neck were compared in 34 women with vertebral fracture and 34 controls. Mean BMD [g/cm[2]], T-score, and Z-score values at both femoral neck and spine were significantly lower in the fracture than the nonfracture group. Z-score was more sensitive than BMD T-score for detecting low bone mass. T-score was not sensitive enough to identify low BMD in the spine, whereas the femoral neck T-score could recognize women at high risk of fracture with higher accuracy

[Relationship between psychosocial factors and marital satisfaction in infertile women]

Marital relationship among some infertile women is subject to increased vulnerability affecting their quality of life. Investigating the relationship between psychosocial factors and marital satisfaction in infertile women In this cross-sectional study 125 women with primary infertility who entered an IUI program were selected using purposive sampling. All participants filled out a questionnaire containing personal information, diagnostic, and treatment history. They were also subjected to psychological tests including Spiel Berger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory test, Marital Satisfaction Scale test, Self-esteem Inventory t test, and Cassidy Social Support Inventory test. Descriptive statistical test and Pearson correlation were used for statistical analysis. The mean score of state and trait anxiety, marital satisfaction, and self-esteem were 45.1 +/- 9.8, 45.6 +/- 9.1, 63.56 +/- 10.6, and 5.76 +/- 2.5, respectively. Factors such as age, education, job, income, length of marriage, duration of diagnosis, treatment period, infertility factor and also "state" anxiety showed no significant relationship with marital satisfaction. However, there was a reverse relationship between "trait" anxiety and marital satisfaction [r=0.248, p=0.003]. Moreover, a significant direct relationship was found between the self-esteem [r=0.328, p=0.0001], social support [r=0.283, p=0.001] and marital satisfaction. High trait anxiety, low self-esteem, and low social support, especially from spouse, can result in lower marital satisfaction which may be associated with specific dilemmas including disrupted sexual life and overall increased marital tensions

[Effect of acupressure on labor pain intensity]

Childbirth is a painful experience for most of women. Acupressure is a noninvasive method that has been suggested for labor pain relief. The aim of present study was to determine the effect of acupressure on labor pain relief among parturient women in Kamali hospital in city of Karadj, near Tehran in year 2006. This double-blind randomized clinical trial was performed on 128 women in labor admitted with cervical dilatation of 3 cm. They were randomly assigned to intervention group with 30 minutes of acupressure on SP-6 point or comparison group with SP-6 point touch for 30 minutes. Visual analogue scale assessments were used to measure labor pain in both groups and to compare the results in several stages: before intervention, immediately after intervention, 30 minutes after intervention, and then every hour until the end of the first stage of labor. Differences of pain intensity as measured in different stages within each group were also compared with each other. None of the above-mentioned comparisons showed a significant difference, except for significant difference in pain intensity as measured at different stages within each group, which indicated increasing pain intensity from immediately after intervention through the end of the first stage of labor in both groups [p<0.0001]. These finding showed that SP-6 point acupressure alone cannot effectively relieve labor pain and needs to be accompanied with other noninvasive analgesic methods

Exudative pleural effusion: effectiveness of pleural fluid analysis and pleural biopsy

The study compared pleural fluid analysis and pleural biopsy in the diagnosis of 100 patients with exudative pleural effusion [PE] in Babol, Islamic Republic of Iran. Tuberculous pleurisy and malignant pleural effusion were confirmed by the identification of acid-fast bacilli from body fluids or tumour cells from tissue specimens. Malignant diseases and tuberculosis were the causes of exudative PE in 43% and 33% of patients respectively. The diagnostic sensitivity of pleural biopsy in patients with tuberculous PE and malignant PE was 70% and 54%, and the diagnostic sensitivity of pleural fluid analysis was 33% and 70% respectively. Combined pleural biopsy and pleural fluid analysis were positive in 97% of tuberculous PE cases and 91% of malignant PE

[Evaluation of bone mass in postmenopausal women presenting with back pain]

Back pain [BP] is a common symptom among the general population,particularly in the elderly subjects. It is the most common feature of osteoporosis [OP] as well as a symptom of vertebral fracture [VF]. In elderly women it may be a heralding symptom of OP and possibly a presenting feature of VF. The present study was designed to determine the frequency of low bone mass in postmenopausal women presenting with BP. 155 postmenopausal women with BP were studied. Bone mineral density [BMD] was measured with use of dual energy x-ray absorptiometry [DXA] with a single Norland Excell densitometer. BMD was determined in the femoral neck [FN] and L2-L4 region of lumbar spine [LS]. T-score and Z-score at both regions were determined. Frequency of OP and osteopenia at the FN and LS regions were detrmined according to WHO criteria. Patients with inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases, inflammatory back pain, infectious, or malignant spinal diseases, and history of rheumatic diseases or spinal surgery were excluded. Chi square and t tests were used for comparisons. The mean age and the mean menopausal duration of patients were 64 +/- 8 and 16 +/- 9 years respectively. Sixty-three percent of patients were 60 years or over. The mean BMD at the LS and FN were 0.70 +/- 0.13 gr/cm-2 and 0.79 +/- 0.18 gr/cm-2 respectively. The proportion of OP at the FN and LS were 30% and 56% respectively. The combined prevalence of OP at both FN and LS was 61.5%. The proportion of patients with Z-score<-1 and<-2 at the LS were 40% and 22% and at the FN were 37% and 11% respectively. In patients, aged 70 years and over, compared with patients below 70 years the BMD was decreased by 14% at the FN and 10% at the LS [P<0.02 and P<0.001 respectively]. Menopausal duration of over than 10 years was associated with 5.6 fold risk of OP. The results of this study indicate that, the majority of postmenopausal women with BP are osteoporotic or osteopenic at the LS or FN. So they are at increased risk of future vertebral or femoral neck fractures

[Impact of cognitive behaviour therapy on anxiety level of primary infertile women undergoing IUI]

Infertility and its numerous treatment programs create crisis in infertile women's life and is a potent source of anxiety. Since cognitive behavioural therapy might be efficacious for emotional aspect of infertility, therefore we designed a study for evaluation of cognitive behaviour therapy effect on anxiety level in primary infertile women undergoing IUI in Montaserieh Infertility Research Center from May to August 2001. In this randomized controlled clinical trial 110 women with primary infertility that were undergoing IUI for first time randomly were allocated to two groups of experimental and control. In first visit for IUI treatment [beginning of study] state and trait anxiety of all subjects were measured by Spiel Berger anxiety inventory. The experimental group completed a cognitive behaviour therapy program including cognitive restructuring and relaxation for 12-13 days. Control group received only routine cares. State and trait anxiety were measured in 30 minutes before and after IUI for two groups. Findings showed that state and trait anxiety scores in beginning of study were not significantly different between two groups. But state anxiety scores during and end of study were significantly different which there was more decrease in experimental group. Trait anxiety score were not significantly different at the beginning, before and end of study. The mean of difference state anxiety at beginning and during study and beginning and end of study was significantly different and beginning and end of study in two groups. Also the mean of difference between trait anxiety at beginning and during study and beginning and end of study was significantly different in two groups, while the mean of difference between trait anxiety during and end of study was not significant. The results of study showed that cognitive behaviour therapy is effective in reduction of anxiety in women undergoing IUI treatment, so we recommend securing psychological well being in women undergoing infertility treatment