RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis as a solution for patients with chronic renal failure is a stressful process. Anxiety and depression after hemodialysis could have negative impacts on quality of life, treatment and prognosis of the disease. Some studies indicated that educating patients prior to hemodialysis could enhance patients' quality of life and increase the likelihood of their survival. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated psychological impacts of psycho education on anxiety and depression symptoms in patients under dialysis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a prospective, experimental intervention study with pretest and post-test. Eligible patients (n = 60) were selected randomly from dialysis center of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Sari in 2009. Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) score of patients were eight or greater. They were divided into two matched groups. In one group, patients were given psycho education during three sessions of one-hour, while patients in the control group did not receive any education. HADS was completed for both groups before dialysis and one month after the end of educational sessions. The data were compared and analyzed using paired t-test and Chi-square test. RESULTS: Psycho education decreased depression score (P < 0.001) and the HADS (P = 0.008) significantly. These decreases were not significant for anxiety scores of patients (P = 0.185). CONCLUSION: This research indicated that psycho education based on the designed protocol decreased the scores of depression and total scores of HADS.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: A high seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection has been detected in psychiatric patients, particularly in schizophrenia cases. METHODS: In the present study 98 patients suffering from schizophrenia (58 inpatients and 40 first-episode patients) and 96 control patients (50 healthy volunteers and 46 with a depressive disorder) were examined for the presence of both IgG and IgM antibodies against T. gondii by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We applied the Bradford Hill criteria to identify the weight of causal inference. RESULTS: The positivity rate of anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies among individuals with schizophrenia (57.1%) was significantly higher than in healthy controls (29.2%). There were no associations between immune status ratio (ISR) values and the risk of schizophrenia. The weight of evidence approach using the Bradford Hill criteria revealed a 92% probability of a causal association. CONCLUSION: Our results show that exposure to T. gondii may lead to schizophrenia.
