نشریه قرآن و طب
پیاپی 1 (بهار 1390)

Anxiety is a kind of agitation and apprehension which is caused under the influence of the threat or danger feeling in individuals. Anxiety in athletes can reduce the optimum performance. According to the Islamic religious doctrines, spiritual relationship with God comforts the hearts and prevent from the anxiety. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hearing the Holy Quran lilt on the athlete's competitive anxiety. This research was a quasi-experimental (randomized cohort) study. Samples of the study were 80 female students studied in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences who were attending the sporting events. Data collection tools were of personal information and Marten's competitive anxiety questionnaires. First, the anxiety of all subjects in the control and experimental group was determined before the tournaments. Then, on the race day, about an hour before holding, for 15 min the Quran's lilt was broadcast for experimental group that had been gathered in a hall, and finally 15 minutes before the competition outset, the anxiety questionnaire was distributed among subjects and collected after completion. The mean anxiety score of the experimental and control groups before the intervention were 20.3±2.68 and 20.7±1.6 respectively and after the intervention were 17.5±1.02 and 20.2±1.87, respectively. Significant difference was not observed between the mean score of the experimental and control groups before the intervention but after intervention, there was a significant difference (p=0.02). Reading [of] and listening to the Quran verses is a simple, effective, affordable, accessible and most importantly drug free method to reduce anxiety in athletes before competition.

Chronic diseases are the major cause of mortality all over the world. Long-term nature of chronic diseases causes the goal of treatment in these diseases to be shifted from the elimination and eradication of the disease to the maintenance of the function. Maintenance of the function requires the close communication of medical care, social support services,educational services and health promotion. The purpose of this study was the qualitative investigation of the role of spiritual beliefs in the promotion of patients’ health.. Using the qualitative study approach of content analysis type, 35 patients with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes referred to the educational-treatment centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, who had been chosen based on purposive sampling method, were interviewed. Line by line analysis of the obtained information was done using constant comparison and information recall-writing methods.. The 5 main categories of "spiritual beliefs and lifestyle", "spiritual beliefs and self-efficacy", "spiritual beliefs as an adaptation mechanism", "religious practices positive effects on mental health of patients" and "spiritual beliefs challenge" were extracted from the data analysis. In some patients, spiritual beliefs decreased with increase in the duration of illness.. Spiritual beliefs, in addition to facilitating the patients’ confrontation with the negative psychological effects of chronic disease, reduce the patient's depression and increase their satisfaction with life. Spiritual beliefs not only affect the way of coping with the disease, but also play an important role in the lifestyle of patients and increase the patient's linkage to the treatment regimen by creating the feeling of purposefulness. Religious activities are also used by patients as a consolatory agent to reduce anxiety, pain and depression.

Most of the people, who are transfer to the operating room for surgery are stressed that can cause some adverse physical and mental complications. The ways of reducing this anxiety have always been questioned and studied. This study was conducted aiming at investigating the non- pharmaceutical methods such as listening to the Holy Quran recitation as a useful and effective procedure to decrease the anxiety. This experimental study was done in 2009 on 180 patients referred to Imam Khomeini hospital in Jiroft who were candidate for abdomen and limbs surgery with anesthesia class of ASAI. Samples were randomly divided into three 60-patient groups. Group 1 was treated with the Quran lilt by itself, and group 2 with the Quran lilt accompanied with the Persian meanings and group 3 as the control group. Data collection tools were the questionnaire for recording personal data, the standard trail anxiety inventory and the checklist for registering vital signs. Data was analyzed using SPSS16 software with one-way ANNOVA and Man-Whitney U test. The results showed that the degree of anxiety or stress among the three groups had significant statistical difference after interventions (p=0.035; f=3.755). Moreover, the level of anxiety between the group 2 and 3 had a significant difference (p=0.019) and didn’t have a significant difference between the group 1 and 3 (p=0.513). The lilt of Quran accompanied by Persian meanings can be more effective in reducing anxiety compared to the lilt of Quran by itself. This method can be used as an effective non-pharmaceutical method for reducing patient's anxiety before any surgery.

The elderly residence in nursing homes in Iran has a growing trend and maintaining and promoting the mental health of this vulnerable group is of great importance. The present study was conducted in order to identify the prognostic factors of mental health in Elderly resided in geriatric centers.

This cross-sectional study was conducted during summer 2007 on 56 elderly resided in the Golabchi nursing home in Kashan. The participants were selected using purposive sampling method. They had normal IQ, were able to understand the questions, and had no psychosis, no known psychological disorder and Alzheimer. The study was undertaken using a 28-article form of the standard general mental health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and a researcher-made questionnaire including the demographic and personal questions. After data extraction, the data was progressively analyzed using SPSS 16 software, and using statistical tests including Chi-square and multivariate linear regression analysis.

41.1% of the samples lacked mental health. The mental health status showed a significant correlation with the previous agreement to stay in the nursing home and Quran recitation while staying, but didn’t have any significant correlation with age, sex, marital status, the reason of residence in the nursing home, educational level, previous residence of the relatives in the nursing home, and satisfaction with staying there. 55.4% of the score variance of elderly mental health (p<0.001; F=11.16) was explained by three variables of "religious activities while staying in nursing homes", "education" and "previous agreement with staying in nursing home".

providing the necessary facilities for religious activities and drawing the agreements of the elderly in order to stay in the nursing home help the promotion of mental health of the elderly who reside in nursing homes.

Almost no society can be found in which a suicide has not been attempted, but due to the religious thoughts, it is less observed among Muslims and Catholic Christians. The individual who commits a suicide is aware of the consequence of his/her action and this is the most important issue in the explication and explanation of the suicide phenomenon. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between saying prayers and suicide among hospitalized patients. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2008 on 225 inpatients of the hospitals affiliated to the Sanandaj University of Medical Sciences who had attempted suicide. The subjects were selected using available sampling method. Data collection tool was a two-part questionnaire consisting of the demographic data and the rate of saying prayers by means of interview. Data was analyzed using SPSS 16 statistical software by Chi-square test and Fisher exact test. The frequency of saying prayers was weak in 125 subjects and was average in 100 cases. there was a significant correlation between the rate of saying prayers and gender, family size, marital status, place of residence, the patient's job and the history of mental illness (p<0.0001). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between saying prayers and physical illness (p<0.002), believing in prayer (p<0.009) and understanding the philosophy of prayer (p<0.0001). No significant correlation was observed between the rate of saying prayers and birth order (p<0.98), educational status (p>0.05) and belief in the afterlife (p<0.326). Saying prayers has a reverse relationship with suicide attempting and this hypothesis can be used as a deterrent in the psychological treatments of patients who attempt suicide.

The human nature has an inner tendency toward harmony and rhythm and enjoys order and coordination. The Holy Quran has an eloquent expression, a fluent style and an enchanting song that affects the audience. During the past two decades, research in the area of Quran lilt and medical science in Iran has been seriously followed. The present study has been conducted aiming at investigating and analyzing the studies undertaken in relation with the Holy Quran lilt and the health domain in Iran. The valuable results of the influence of Quran lilt especially in the area of mental health are obvious and clear.Physicians, nurses and sociologists, beside the psychological and medication methods, can use the inspiring words of revelation to reduce their patients’ problems and ask clients to have religious behaviors such as Quran reading in their life schedule to reduce their stress and worries.

Mental health problems are among the important increasing contributors to the families and societie's burden. The goal of mental health is to prevent infection and to reduce the incidence, and to prevent from mental illnesses and disorder's complications. The main purpose of this paper was to investigate the relationship between the religious orientation and familie's mental health. This quantitative research was conducted using survey technique on the families that both man and woman were alive and lived together, residing in Hesarak suburb, down Karaj, in 2009. 386 families were selected based on systematic random sampling method. To measure the mental health, the standardized questionnaire of the World Health Organization was used. There was a significant relationship between familie's mental health and age, sex, income, education level,employment status, family size and introvert and extrovert religious orientation. Based on the results of the multivariable regression, variables such as introvert religious orientation, income, extrovert religious orientation and education explained about 63% of the changes in the dependent variable. based on the path analysis model, introvert religious orientation has the highest effect on mental health among the studied variables.

Different ideas and viewpoints can be found on religious recommendations about appropriate nutrition. But from the viewpoint of successful people, awareness is beneficial in development and modification of the educational trend and realization of these attitudes. The aim of present study was to determine the awareness and attitude of faculty members, physicians and Paramedics towards the religious recommendations on nutrition. This stud cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on faculty members, physicians and Paramedics of one of Tehran hospitals. 178 subjects were selected by randomized sampling and were asked to say how much they were aware of Islamic recommendations on nutrition and their attitude and awareness was classified in three “weak”, “moderate” and “good” levels. Statistical analysis of data was performed by SPSS17 using independent T-test and ANOVA. Awareness levels of most studied cases was in moderate level as follows: weak (19.2%), moderate (64%) and good (78.8%). The attitude levels were as follows: weak (8.98%), moderate (78.53%) and good (72.47%). The means of awareness and attitude levels of interviewees were 5.408 out of 15 and 61.755 out of 100 respectively. Faculty members, physicians and Paramedics presented positive and good attitude toward religious recommendations on nutrition; though, their knowledge was mostly at intermediate level. This positive attitude is able to pave the way for development of religious recommendations on nutrition, medicine and health.