مجله دانشگاه علوم پزشکی اراک
سال بیست و پنجم شماره 6 (پیاپی 160، بهمن و اسفند 1401)

Given the increasing number of patients with multiple sclerosis and the psychological complications that affect this group, the present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion-focused therapy for these patients

This research was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. A total of 45 patients with multiple sclerosis were selected from MS patients in Tehran Clinic, Tehran City, Iran, in 2020. They were randomly divided into three groups: the first group was under treatment based on acceptance and commitment therapy, the second group was assigned to the compassion-focused therapy, and the third group was the control. The participants completed the Connor and Davidson resilience questionnaire and the Pennsylvania concern questionnaire in the pretest and post-test stages. The first and second groups participated in eight sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy and ten sessions of compassion-focused therapy, respectively. The control group did not receive any intervention. The post-test was done at the end of the therapy sessions. Data were reported by analysis of covariance.

This research was approved by the Torbat Jam Branch, Islamic Azad University (Cod: IR.IAU.TJ.REC.1399.012).

The results of univariate analysis of covariance were obtained at the statistical level of P<0.05. In this regard, F=5.88 for resilience and F=42.60 for anxiety intensity were obtained, which indicated the greater effectiveness of acceptance and commitment treatment.

Considering the effectiveness of both treatments, it is suggested that these treatments be given more attention to controlling patients’ psychological symptoms.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs (17-25 nucleotides) that have been studied in many diseases. miRNAs studies in different cancers have shown that miRNAs may be considered oncogene or tumor suppressor. So far, many studies have shown that miR-17-5p and miR-93-5p are important regulatory molecules in some biological processes, such as cell proliferation, associated with cancer formation. This study aimed to investigate and compare the tissue and plasma expression levels of miR-17-5p and miR-93-5p in patients with ductal carcinoma breast cancer with the normal control group.

The total RNA (including miRNA) was extracted from breast and plasma tissue samples of cancerous and normal samples. The RNA concentration and purity were confirmed using optical absorbance measurements. cDNA was synthesized, and the expression levels of miR-17-5p and miR-93-5p were assessed semi-quantitatively by SYBR Green-based real-time RT-PCR assay in plasma and breast tissues of ductal carcinoma breast cancer compared with the control normal samples with SNORD47 as internal normalizer. Data were statistically evaluated using GraphPad Prism 8.0.2.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the institute (IRAN 52d/4922, 6.10.2016). All study individuals signed a consent form to use their clinical samples and personal data under the physician’s supervision.

The expression level of miR-17-5p showed significantly higher expression in tissues and plasma of the cancer group compared with the control group (P<0.0001). It was also significantly associated with tumor stage and lymph node, and ER (estrogen receptor) and PR (progesterone receptor) status (P<0.0001). While decreased expression of miR-93-5p in plasma and tumor tissues was shown to be significantly associated with tumor stage and lymph node involvement (P<0.0001).

The data revealed that high expression of miR-17-5p and low expression of miR-93-5p in both plasma and breast tumor might be associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. However, miR-17-5p, due to the greater change in expression and ease of plasma detection, may serve as a possible non-invasive biomarker for breast cancer’s poor prognosis. Further follow-up studies are required to confirm this finding.

Menopause is a period in a woman’s life that can be physically damaging. However, its effect on bone mineral density is still debatable. This study investigated the relationship between serum calcium, phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase indices with lumbar bone mineral density in active and inactive postmenopausal women.

The number of subjects was 55 active postmenopausal women and 60 inactive postmenopausal women aged 45 to 85 years. Serum indices of calcium, phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase and anthropometric of the subjects were measured. The Pearson correlation coefficient test was used to analyze the research data. SPSS software v. 26 was used to analyze the data.

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Allameh Tabataba’i University with code IR.ATU.REC.1399.038.

The results showed a significant correlation between serum levels of alkaline phosphatase (P=0.021), calcium (P=0.019), and phosphorus (P=0.011) with lumbar bone mineral density in active postmenopausal women and also between body mass index with lumbar bone mineral density in both groups of active (P=0.014) and inactive (P=0.038) postmenopausal women. No significant relationship was found between other indicators.

According to the results of the present study, being active may have had beneficial effects on bone metabolism and has led to a better state of bone mineral density. It may also help to use these blood and anthropometric variables in identifying people at risk for osteoporosis in adulthood and old age.

This study aimed to investigate the clinical and laboratory characteristics of hydatid cyst disease in patients admitted to Imam Reza, Imam Hossein, and Bisotoon hospitals in Kermanshah City, Iran, from 2014 to 2018. 

In this descriptive study, we studied and analyzed the medical records of 350 patients with hydatid cysts who were hospitalized and underwent surgical treatment in Kermanshah hospitals from 2014 to 2018. Also, the demographic characteristics of patients, including gender, age, occupation, place of residence, and affected organs, were extracted and recorded.

The Ethics Committee of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences approved this study (Code: IR.KUMS.REC.1398.366).

In total, 350 patients with a Mean±SD age of 43.2±19.7 in women and 43.3±20.7 in men were admitted with a diagnosis of hydatid cyst. The highest and lowest prevalence of hydatid cysts were in the age groups of 41-50 (16.5%) years and 1-10 (4.8%) years, respectively. The prevalence was 181 (51.7%) in women and 169 (48.2%) in men. The organs mostly infected with hydatid cysts were the liver, lung, and brain, with 241 cases (68.8%), 55 (15.7%), and 24 (6.8%), respectively. 

This study shows that hydatid cyst disease is an important disease, especially in rural areas of Kermanshah Province, Iran.

Various research studies have investigated the relationship between anxiety and worry. The present study aimed to examine the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation and mindfulness in the relationship between anxiety and worry.

The present study follows a correlational design study. The research sample included 248 students of Kashan universities in Iran studying in the 2017-2018 academic year. The study data were collected using the generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7), Pennsylvania state worry questionnaire (PSWQ), the Persian short form of cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (CERQ-P-short form), and five-factor mindfulness questionnaire (FFMQ). Then, the obtained data were analyzed using the SPSS v. 22 and AMOS v. 22 software.

The Ethics Committee of Kashan University of Medical Sciences approved the study (Code: IR.KAUMS.REC.1396.36).

The results showed a significant relationship between generalized anxiety and worry, worry and cognitive emotion regulation, worry and mindfulness, generalized anxiety and cognitive emotion regulation, and anxiety and mindfulness. The results of the structural equation modeling confirmed the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation in the relationship between anxiety and worry. Also, the path coefficient of mindfulness and anxiety was removed from the model because it was not significant.

Generally, cognitive emotion regulation plays a mediating role in the relationship between anxiety and worry. These findings seem applicable in the individual, family, educational, therapeutic, and interpersonal mental health fields.

Fibromyalgia syndrome is a chronic disease that causes widespread musculoskeletal pain. It primarily affects women and negatively impacts many aspects of a person’s psychological and social life. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness and compassion therapy on automatic negative thoughts, psychological symptoms, pain intensity, and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.

This research is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with two experimental and one control group. The statistical study population consisted of all individuals with fibromyalgia syndrome referred to Mehregan Pain Clinic in Mirdamad (District 3), Seyed Khandan Clinic (District 4), and Taleghani Hospital Pain Clinic (District 1) in Tehran City, Iran. Of them, 30 patients were randomly selected and divided into three groups of experimental 1, experimental 2, and control; each group will include 10 people. The instruments used in this study included the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire (WHOQOL BREF), pain intensity questionnaire (PIS), psychological symptoms questionnaire (Anxiety, Stress and Depression [DASS]), and automatic negative thoughts (QNS).

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University (Code: IR.IAU.ARAK.REC.1400.005). 

The analysis of covariance showed the effectiveness of both cognitive therapies based on mindfulness and compassion therapy on four variables of pain intensity, psychological symptoms, automatic negative thoughts, and quality of life (P<0.05). Comparing the two intervention methods showed that both therapies had almost the same effect on pain intensity, psychological symptoms, and automatic negative thoughts (P<0.05) but the effectiveness of mindfulness intervention on the quality of life was significantly higher than compassion intervention (P<0.05). 

The results indicate that cognitive therapy based on mindfulness and compassion therapy are suitable for people with fibromyalgia under appropriate treatment.