RESUMO
Background and Aim: The current study aimed to, first, investigate the frequency of cancer patients who receive complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), separated by the type of the disease, and second, to study their incentives and causes of use. Materials and Methods: Following a cross-sectional design, cancer cases referred to referral centers of cancer in Isfahan province were studied. Data were collected using a researcher-developed checklist that included type of the disease, complementary medicine, and causes of a tendency to use CAM. Results: A total of 256 patients were studied. One hundred and sixty-three patients (63.7%) had a history of receiving CAM. Sixty-five percent of the patients were satisfied with their CAM treatment. Patients with breast cancer had the highest prevalence of CAM use (72.2%), which was more than other types of cancers (P = 0.046). There was no significant association between the frequency of CAM use and the patient characteristics such as age, level of education, marital status, and gender (P > 0.05). Conclusion: It is evident that the majority of patients with cancer are using CAM modulates and are satisfied with it. They want to try every possible way to cure. Physicians should consider the likelihood that their patient is taking CAM and adopt appropriate strategies to address the issue.
RESUMO
Due to a close association between depressive disorders and altered estrogen levels, this study was conducted to examine the hypothesis that antidepressant-like effect of ethinyl estradiol (EE2) in ovariectomized mice is modulated by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/nitric oxide pathways. Female mice were undergone bilateral ovariectomy and different doses of EE2 were intraperitoenally injected alone and combined with specific mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin, non-specific NOS inhibitor, L-NAME, nNOS inhibitor, 7-NI, NO precursor, l-arginine, and selective PDE5I, sildenafil. After locomotion assessment, immobility times were recorded in FST and TST. Moreover, hippocampal mTOR expression was assessed using western blot assay. The hippocampal concentrations of nitrite, a major metabolite of NO, were measured. Although EE2 demonstrated a significant antidepressant-like activity in OVX mice, acute rapamycin exerted an unmarked decrease of the anti-immobility effect of EE2 in FST and TST (P>0.05). In contrast, combination of minimal effective dose of EE2 with sub- effective doses of either L-NAME (10mg/kg) or 7-NI (25mg/kg) resulted in a robust antidepressant-like effect in OVX mice. Administration of either L-NAME or 7-NI enhanced the decreased antidepressant activity of EE2 induced by combination with rapamycin. Moreover, decrement of hippocampal mTOR expression in OVX mice was significantly enhanced by acute EE2. The increased hippocampal nitrite concentrations caused by ovariectomy were also reversed by EE2 administration. The study demonstrated that acute treatment with lowest dose of EE2 exerts significant antidepressant-like behavior in OVX mice, possibly, through mTOR activation. This effect seems to be also mediated by the suppression of nitric oxide pathway.
