Transcranial Photobiomodulation Improves Cognitive Performance in Young Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Transcranial photobiomodulation (t-PBM) is a noninvasive modality that may improve cognitive function in both healthy and diseased subjects. Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis addresses the question of whether t-PBM improves cognitive function in healthy adults. Methods: We searched MEDLINE using PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library up to March 2019. We also searched ProQuest and Google Scholar databases for unpublished material. The search was limited to articles on the procognitive effects of t-PBM in healthy adults. The initial search resulted in 871 studies, of which nine publications met our criteria for inclusion and exclusion. Seven studies were performed on young, healthy subjects (17-35 years), and two studies were conducted on older (≥49 years), normal subjects. A meta-analysis was performed on six full-text publications whose subjects were young adults. Results: t-PBM administration improved cognition-related outcomes by an 0.833 standardized mean difference (SMD; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.458-1.209, 14 comparisons) in young, healthy participants. Funnel plotting revealed asymmetry, which was validated using Egger's (p = 0.030) and Begg's regression (p = 0.006) tests. However after reanalysis, this asymmetry disappeared in the attention subgroup, but not in the memory subgroup. The trim-and-fill analysis indicated two studies were lacking required data. Thus, the effect size was adjusted from an SMD of 0.761 (95% CI: 0.573-0.949) to 0.949 (0.779-1.120). The overall quality score of the studies was modest. Conclusions: We demonstrated a significant, beneficial effect of t-PBM on cognitive performance of young, healthy individuals; however, the heterogeneity of the data was high. This could be due to the modest quality or to the low number of included studies, or to the differences between the various subdomains assessed. These shortcomings should be meticulously addressed before concluding that t-PBM is a cognitive-enhancing intervention in healthy individuals.

Detailed analysis of total colectomy on health-related quality of life in adult patients with ulcerative colitis.

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the quality of life (QoL) in a group of patients who had an intractable disease on medical therapy including biologics and underwent surgery. BACKGROUND: Quality of life of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) has been measured with a series of multiple questionnaires. METHODS: An observational cross sectional study was carried out on 68 patients with documented UC referring to an IBD clinic in a tertiary hospital. Patients with UC who had a colectomy because of intractable disease and were in remission for a year were eligible for enrollment Patients were instructed to fill the SF-36 Questionnaire (interviewer-administered) regarding quality of life. Side effects were evaluated with another questionnaire. Results were compared with the normal population of the community. RESULTS: In comparison with normal population, patients having colectomy have better general QoL. Impotency and incontinency were most common adverse events after colectomy while the adverse events that decreased the QoL significantly were anal secretions and number of bowel movements per day without using antidiarrheal- drugs. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our study showed a significant improvement of general QoL in a selected group of UC patients, who were in clinical remission following IPAA and only number of bowel movements per day and anal secretions significantly impaired their QoL. We suggest that a disease-specific questionnaire should be designed, making changes in health-related QOL more detectable over time, since it is more sensitive to these changes in IBD patients than a general questionnaire.

Effects of family-centered empowerment model based education program on quality of life in methamphetamine users and their families.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays there are more concerns about drug treatment of methamphetamine abusers whereas quality of life (QOL) related supportive psychotherapy is less credited. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of family-centered empowerment model on social support and QOL of methamphetamine users and their families. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was a randomized clinical trial; individuals were randomly allocated to three groups: a group for educating methamphetamine users in recovery (95 subjects), a group for educating a family member of methamphetamine users in recovery (95 subjects) and a control group (95 subjects). Data collecting instruments were standard questionnaires of social support and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Data were analyzed using χ2-test, t-test, paired t-test, Pearson's correlation and ANOVA. RESULTS: Mean scores of QOL and social support dimensions changed significantly in two intervention groups (P < 0.0001), but didn't change in the control group (P > 0.05). Also, there was a positive significant relation (P < 0.05) between total social support and all dimensions of QOL for all study groups. CONCLUSIONS: Family-centered empowerment model, easily adapted to methamphetamine users and their families, leads to improved social supports and QOL.