فهرست مطالب mahdieh saeidi

Paying attention to the needs of patients with psychiatric disorders has recently come into focus. Failure to meet the needs of patients can affect their quality of life. This study aimed to determine the main areas of the needs of patients with severe psychiatric disorders and evaluate their relationship with the quality of life.  

In this cross-sectional study, 174 patients with severe mental illness who were referred to Iran Psychiatric Hospital for hospitalization or outpatient treatment were enrolled in this study (68 with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, 106 with bipolar disorder type 1). A qualified psychiatry resident conducted interviews with each patient to determine their needs using the Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Appraisal Schedule (CANSAS) and the severity of their illness using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and Young Mania Rating Scale. A checklist for demographic data and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire was completed by patients. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Since the number of needs distribution was not normal, we used the Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and chi-square tests for qualitative variables.  

The total number of patient needs was 9 (mean = 9.1, SD = 3.7). The most unmet needs were intimate relationships (69.5%), sexual expression (65.5%), and information on condition and treatment (51.1%). Unmet needs showed a negative correlation with the quality of life (P < 0.001) and a positive correlation with the severity of depression (P = 0.045), negative symptoms (P = 0.001), and general psychopathology (P < 0.001).   

A higher number of unmet needs of severe psychiatric patients is associated with lower quality of life and more severe disorders.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious psychiatric disorder that is characterized by unstable affect, mood, behavior, object relations, and self-image. In this study, a 6-month follow-up was performed to evaluate the outcomes of hospitalization in terms of symptoms severity, suicidal attempts, self-harm behaviors, substance use, and anger expression. This cross-sectional study was performed on 60 patients hospitalized with BPD in Iran Psychiatric Hospital in the first 6 months of 2018. Demographic information of patients was collected at the time of admission. Patients were assessed by initial psychiatric evaluations with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV [Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-1), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (SCID-2)], the Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST), the Spielberger’s state-trait anger expression inventory and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Medical comorbidities, self-harm and suicide ideations and attempts, high-risk behaviors, and substance use disorders were also assessed and recorded. Three months after discharge, the patients were reassessed by BEST questionnaire and after 6 months, they were reassessed using DASS, BEST, SCID-2, and Spielberger’s state-trait anger expression inventory.  The repeated measures analysis of changes in quantitative variables including the scores of the severity of symptoms in BEST, DASS, and Spielberger tools showed that the scores of DASS decreased significantly during the study (p=0.020), while no significant change was observed in the scores of Spielberger and BEST inventory. In patients with BPD, hospitalization was correlated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress 6 months after discharge. Regular follow-ups along with regular patient visits can form an effective therapeutic relationship with the patients and help to improve monitoring of their drug usage, self-harming acts, and suicidal thoughts.

Prosopis juliflora is a shrub belonging to the family Fabaceae. It is native to Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. It has become established as an invasive weed in Africa, Asia, Australia and elsewhere. P. juliflora is located in Sahara-Sindian climatic region as a resistant species against the salinity. Its habitats in Iran are limited to Hormozgan and Sistan and Balochestan provinces. Algarobius prosopis (LeConte) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is reported for the first time as a seed beetle from the collected pods and seeds of P. juliflora from Hormozgan province.

The fumigant toxicity of volatile fractions of peel essential oils of the Rutaceae species of Citrus reticulata Blanco, C. limon L. and C. aurantium L. was studied against eggs, larvae and adults of Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) at 27 ± 1 ºC and 65 ± 5% RH in darkness. The oils were extracted from the fruit peels using water steam distillation. The essential oils were characterized by a combination of GC and GC/MS analyses. Limonene was the major constituent of the three essential oils. The effect of different concentrations of the essential oil vapors on egg hatchability as well as larval and adult mortality was found to be significant. Citrus reticulata and C. aurantium oils were more toxic on egg hatchability than C. limon extract and caused higher mortality on larvae as well. There was no significant difference between essential oils in terms of adult mortality. The adult beetles were also exposed to the concentrations of 18.5, 37, 55.5 and 74 μl/l air. At the highest concentration (74 μl/l air), C. aurantium oil caused 100% mortality after a 6 h exposure, but the oils from C. reticulata and C. limon caused 38% and 62% mortality, at the identical exposure time, respectively. The results suggest that citrus peel oils can be effectively used as botanical fumigants against various life stages of Ca. maculatus.

The essential oils of aerial parts of three medicinal plants Artemisia khorassanica Podl., Rosmarinus officinalis L. and Mentha longifolia L. were isolated by hydrodistillation and investigated for their toxicity and repellency against Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val. at 27 ± 1 ºC and 60 ± 5% RH in darkness. The mortality of the adults increased with concentration from 185 to 1111 μl/l air and with exposure time from 9 to 24 h. A concentration of 185 μl/l air and exposure time of 24 h was sufficient to obtain nearly 100% kill of the adults in all of the three essential oils tested. At the highest concentration (1111 μl/l air) R. officinalis oil caused 15% mortality for an exposure time of 6-h. whilst, the oil of A. khorassanica resulted in 1% mortality at the same exposure time. The oil of A. khorassanica at 1111 μl/l air caused 81% mortality for 12-h exposure time. No significant differences were observed between the lethal time (LT50) values at essential oil concentrations of 741 and 1111 μl/l air. For 24-h exposure time, the LC50 values of A. khorassanica, R. officinalis and M. longifolia essential oils were estimated to be 22.45, 22.14 and 39.96 μl/l air respectively. Based on LC50 values, adults of T. confusum showed similar susceptibility to the A. khorassanica and R. officinalis oils, but M. longifolia oil proved to be less toxic. In contrast to their low fumigant properties, the essential oil of M. longifolia had significantly higher repellency to T. confusum adults than did the other two.