The frequency of psychiatric disorder co-morbidities in patients with fibromyalgia: A cross-sectional study in Iran.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate psychiatric disorders in Iranian female patients with fibromyalgia (FM). DESIGN: Female patients, newly diagnosed with FM, were interviewed by a psychiatrist for psychiatric assessments during a 2-year period. METHODS: The diagnosis of the psychiatric disorders was based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), and sleep quality was evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). RESULTS: In total, 159 patients with the mean age of 42.15 ± 9.89 were recruited in this study. Over 92% of the cases were also diagnosed with at least one type of psychiatric disorder. Sleep disorders (SDs, 90.57%), mood disorders (MDs, 52.83%), personality disorders (PDs, 40.25%) and anxiety disorders (ADs, 16.98%) were the most prevalent diagnoses among these patients. The logistic regression results correspondingly showed that suffering from Cluster-B PDs was associated with a higher prevalence rate of somatic symptom disorders (SSDs), with a p-value of 0.019 and an odds ratio (OR) of 2.7.

Epidemiology and Clinical Features of Hydatid Cyst in Northern Iran from 2005 to 2015.

BACKGROUND: Human hydatid disease imposes significant impacts on public health by producing substantial morbidity and mortality in involved communities. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiology and clinical features of hydatid cyst in northern Iran as a breeding center for the infection. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the hospital records of all hydatidosis-affected patients admitted in three teaching hospitals of Mazandaran Province between Mar 2005-2015 were reviewed. Hydatidosis-relevant demographic characteristics, clinical findings, and laboratory data were collected. The descriptive statistical analysis was performed by SPSS software. RESULTS: Totally, 79 patients with the mean age of 42.00±23.82 yr were admitted with cystic echinococcosis (CE) diagnosis. Moreover, the highest and the lowest prevalence of CE cases were in age ranges of 50-59 (19.0%) and more than 80 (5.0%) yr, respectively. Male/female ratio was 0.88 (47.0% vs. 53.0%). Majority of the cases were urban residents (54.0%) and had no close contact with animals (58.0%). Nearly, two third of the patients (n=54), the affected organ was liver. The diameter of the cysts was variable from 2 to 15 cm. Most of the patients had a single hydatid cyst. Four patients were diagnosed as secondary hydatid cyst. Medical treatment with antiparasitic agents was done for 47 individuals and in 7 cases; it was the only treatment approach. Percutaneous puncture-aspiration-injection reinjection (PAIR) technique was applied for 6 cases. Sixty-six patients underwent radical surgery. No data was available on eosinophil count or serological tests. CONCLUSION: CE is approximately prevalent in Iranian population. Development of new diagnostic methods and therapeutic procedures is worthy. Moreover, it is necessary to design and develop a registry and surveillance system by a multidisciplinary team.

The Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of Nomophobia Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Nomophobia is the fear of being disconnected from one's mobile phone, prevailing in modern area. To the best of our knowledge, no Persian psychometric scales are available for investigating nomophobia among Iranians. Therefore, we here aimed to translate and validate the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) for being used in Iran. METHODS: The NMP-Q was translated from English to Persian using a classical "backward and forward" procedure. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out to explore the underlying factor structure of the translated questionnaire. A principal component analysis (PCA) approach with varimax rotation was further performed. FINDINGS: 425 volunteer students were included. Among them, 80.2% were 20-30 years old. Men and women constituted 187 (44.0%) and 238 (56.0%) of the participants, respectively. 100 (23.5%) of the subjects were medicine graduates. Using mobile phones for more than 5 years was noted in 215 (50.6%) subjects. Also, 422 (99.3%) subjects connected to the Internet via their cellphones. Regarding cellphone usage, 301 (70.8%) subjects used them less than 5 hours a day, 158 (37.2%) subjects checked their cellphones less than 10 times a day, and 92 (21.6%) subjects checked their cellphones every 20 minutes. Eigenvalues and the scree-plot supported a 3-factorial nature of the translated questionnaire. NMP-Q showed an overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.93 (the coefficients of 0.90, 0.77, and 0.71 for the three factors, respectively). The first, second, and third factors explained 26.30%, 20.84%, and 17.60% of the variance, respectively. The total score of NMP-Q correlated with the hours spent with mobile phones, the years of using them, and the age. CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that the Persian version of the NMP-Q was a valid and reliable tool for evaluating nomophobia among Iranians.

Satisfaction With Chronic Pain Treatment.

BACKGROUND: The effects of chronic pain (CP) on physical function and emotional and mental health of individuals, families, and community are well established. No adequate research is conducted in this field in Iran. OBJECTIVES: The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of CP, types of treatments used for CP and patients' satisfaction with the CP treatments in an Iranian urban population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the current study, CP was investigated using the international CP questionnaire administered to 1,050 adults living in Shiraz, Iran. The questionnaire consisted of 28 questions used to evaluate the effects of CP on the studied population including the prevalence of CP, pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for CP, and participants' satisfaction with CP treatments. All the statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software, version 18. RESULTS: In the current study, 6.95% of the 1,050 subjects willing to participate in the study had CP for more than six months. According to the results, 54% of the subjects with CP used analgesics, mostly non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and narcotic analgesics. Besides, 37% of the subjects used other pain relief methods such as traditional medicine and acupuncture. The results also showed an acceptable rate of satisfaction with treatments. CONCLUSIONS: The number of subjects with CP proved it as a prevalent problem in the study population. Furthermore, characteristics and associations of those experiencing CP demonstrated that it might have significant negative health and psychosocial outcomes in this group. The problem was found significant enough to consider special health programs to prevent and manage CP in urban population of Shiraz.

An experience of qualified preventive screening: shiraz smart screening software.

BACKGROUND: Computerized preventive screening software is a cost effective intervention tool to address non-communicable chronic diseases. Shiraz Smart Screening Software (SSSS) was developed as an innovative tool for qualified screening. It allows simultaneous smart screening of several high-burden chronic diseases and supports reminder notification functionality. The extent in which SSSS affects screening quality is also described. METHODS: Following software development, preventive screening and annual health examinations of 261 school staff (Medical School of Shiraz, Iran) was carried out in a software-assisted manner. To evaluate the quality of the software-assisted screening, we used quasi-experimental study design and determined coverage, irregular attendance and inappropriateness proportions in relation with the manual and software-assisted screening as well as the corresponding number of requested tests. RESULTS: In manual screening method, 27% of employees were covered (with 94% irregular attendance) while by software-assisted screening, the coverage proportion was 79% (attendance status will clear after the specified time). The frequency of inappropriate screening test requests, before the software implementation, was 41.37% for fasting plasma glucose, 41.37% for lipid profile, 0.84% for occult blood, 0.19% for flexible sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy, 35.29% for Pap smear, 19.20% for mammography and 11.2% for prostate specific antigen. All of the above were corrected by the software application. In total, 366 manual screening and 334 software-assisted screening tests were requested. CONCLUSION: SSSS is an innovative tool to improve the quality of preventive screening plans in terms of increased screening coverage, reduction in inappropriateness and the total number of requested tests.

Medical students' knowledge of indications for imaging modalities and cost analysis of incorrect requests, shiraz, iran 2011-2012.

Medical imaging has a remarkable role in the practice of clinical medicine. This study intends to evaluate the knowledge of indications of five common medical imaging modalities and estimation of the imposed cost of their non-indicated requests among medical students who attend Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. We conducted across-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire to assess the knowledge of indications of a number of medical imaging modalities among 270 medical students during their externship or internship periods. Knowledge scoring was performed according to a descriptive international grade conversion (fail to excellent) using Iranian academic grading (0 to 20). In addition, we estimated the cost for incorrect selection of those modalities according to public and private tariffs in US dollars. The participation and response rate was 200/270 (74%). The mean knowledge score was fair for all modalities. Similar scores were excellent for X-ray, acceptable for Doppler ultrasonography, and fair for ultrasonography, CT scan and MRI. The total cost for non-indicated requests of those modalities equaled $104303 (public tariff) and $205581 (private tariff). Medical students at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences lacked favorable knowledge about indications for common medical imaging modalities. The results of this study have shown a significant cost for non-indicated requests of medical imaging. Of note, the present radiology curriculum is in need of a major revision with regards to evidence-based radiology and health economy concerns.