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The relationship between mental health and human rights is complex and bidirectional. Global mental health movements have been emphasizing the promotion of human rights in mental health care in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the WHO QualityRights Initiative. The main objective of this review is to have an overview of the current global situation of human rights in mental health services by performing a review of scientific literature. The literature search and elimination process yielded a total of 26 articles focussing on human rights-related reports and tools. Further assessment of these articles clearly shows that despite significant improvements in mental health service delivery in the past decade, there is still substantial reporting of the continuing prominence of stigmatizing attitudes, and human rights violations and abuses in mental health settings. The human rights perspective requires society, particularly policymakers, to actively promote necessary conditions for all individuals to fully realize their rights. We suggest developing a more comprehensive model in mental health that integrates human rights into existing services and approaches. A model that recognizes that all people with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities are rights holders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although lithium is considered the gold-standard treatment for bipolar disorder (BD), it is associated with a variety of major endocrine and metabolic side effects, including parathyroid hormone (PTH) dependent hypercalcemia. Aside from surgery and medication discontinuation, there are limited treatments for hypercalcemia. This paper will assess data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Methods: This is a secondary analysis of an RCT that explored the effects of atorvastatin (n = 27) versus placebo (n = 33) on lithium-induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) in patients with BD and major depressive disorder (MDD) using lithium (n = 60), over a 12-week period. This secondary analysis will explore serum calcium levels and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) measured at baseline, week 4, and week 12. Results: At 12-weeks follow-up while adjusting results for baseline, linear regression analyses found that corrected serum calcium levels were significantly lower in the treatment group (mean (M) = 2.30 mmol/L, standard deviation (SD) = 0.07) compared to the placebo group (M = 2.33 mmol/L, SD = 0.07) (β = − 0.03 (95% C.I.; − 0.0662, − 0.0035), p = 0.03) for lithium users. There were no significant changes in TSH. Conclusion: In lithium users with relatively normal calcium levels, receiving atorvastatin was associated with a decrease in serum calcium levels. Although exciting, this is a preliminary finding that needs further investigation with hypercalcemic patients. Future RCTs could examine whether atorvastatin can treat PTH dependent hypercalcemia due to lithium and other causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Social-distancing due to COVID-19 has led to social isolation, stress, and mental health issues in older adults, while overwhelming healthcare systems worldwide. Telehealth involving phone calls by trained volunteers is understudied and may be a low-cost, scalable, and valuable preventive tool for mental health. In this context, from patient participatory volunteer initiatives, we have adapted and developed an innovative volunteer-based telehealth intervention program for older adults (TIP-OA). Methods and analysis: To evaluate TIP-OA, we are conducting a mixed-methods longitudinal observational study. Participants: TIP-OA clients are older adults (age ≥ 60) recruited in Montreal, Quebec. Intervention: TIP-OA volunteers make weekly friendly phone calls to seniors to check in, form connections, provide information about COVID-19, and connect clients to community resources as needed. Measurements: Perceived stress, fear surrounding COVID-19, depression, and anxiety will be assessed at baseline, and at 4- and 8-weeks. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups will be conducted to assess the experiences of clients, volunteers, and stakeholders. Results: As of October 15th, 2020, 150 volunteers have been trained to provide TIP-OA to 305 older clients. We will consecutively select 200 clients receiving TIP-OA for quantitative data collection, plus 16 volunteers and 8 clinicians for focus groups, and 15 volunteers, 10 stakeholders, and 25 clients for semi-structured interviews. Discussion: During COVID-19, healthcare professionals' decreased availability and increased needs related to geriatric mental health are expected. If successful and scalable, volunteer-based TIP-OA may help prevent and improve mental health concerns, improve community participation, and decrease healthcare utilization. Clinical Trial Registration : ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04523610; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04523610?term=NCT04523610&draw=2&rank=1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background With our aging population and limited number of geriatric psychiatrists, innovations must be made in order to meet the growing demands for geriatric psychiatry services. Emerging technologies could greatly improve access to care and systematic data collection. Methods This randomized study compared completion rates and time to completion (primary outcomes) when using iPad technology vs. traditional paper forms to complete self-report psychiatric symptoms. Geriatric psychiatry outpatients (n = 72) and adult psychiatry inpatients (n = 50) were recruited to complete the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-53), the Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) questionnaires. Results Geriatric psychiatry outpatients completed the iPad and paper questionnaires at similar rates (91.7% vs. 97.2%, Fisher's Exact p = .61). In two-way ANOVA, including patients aged ≥ 60 (n = 85), outpatient status (F(1,81) = 4.48, p = .037) and iPad format (F (1,81) = 8.96, p = .04) were associated with a shorter time to completion. The effect of questionnaire formats was especially prominent in the inpatient group on time to completion. Conclusions Older adults with mental illness demonstrate a similar ability to complete self-report questionnaires whether iPads or paper forms. iPad questionnaires may even require less time to complete in geriatric psychiatry inpatients. Patients also found iPad questionnaires to be easy to use and read. Tablets could potentially be used for psychiatric symptom assessment for clinical, research, and population health purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Irrational antibiotic prescribing as a global health problem has a major influence on medical care quality and healthcare expenditure. This study was aimed to determine the pattern of antibiotic use and to assess the seasonality and physician-related factors associated with variability in antibiotic prescribing in Isfahan province of Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on all prescriptions issued by general physicians from rural and urban areas in 2011. Associations between season of prescribing and physician-related variables including gender, practice location and time since graduation with antibiotic prescriptions and also the pattern of antibiotic prescribing were assessed using Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression models. Results: Of the 7439709 prescriptions issued by 3772 general practitioners, 51% contained at least one antibiotic. Penicillins were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics, followed by cephalosporins and macrolides. Over-prescription of penicillins was associated with female gender (odds ratio [OR], 2.61; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.13-3.19) and with moderate duration of time in practice (10-20 years) (OR, 1.42; 95% CI 1.14-1.76). Higher rates of cephalosporins prescription were observed in urban areas than rural areas and by male physicians. Seasonal peak was detected for penicillins and cephalosporins prescriptions in autumn. Conclusions: These findings showed the widespread use of antibiotics by general practitioners that was associated with the physicians' gender, time since graduation and practice location and also season of prescribing. More researches are needed on other factors related to the overprescribing of antibiotics and they could be used to project educational programs for improvement of antibiotic prescribing quality in our country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational prescribing increases the quality of health care and patient outcomes. In this study, the quality of drug prescription in specialist physicians in Isfahan province of Iran was assessed for evaluating the rational use of drugs and improving the therapeutic outcomes. This retrospective survey was conducted on a total of 7999530 prescriptions from all general and specialist physicians. The most frequently prescribed drugs and World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators were evaluated in prescriptions of all medical specialties. Assessment of prescribing indicators revealed poor-quality prescribing performance by general practitioners including high number of medicines prescribed per clients, wide range of prescribed medicines in each prescription, over-prescribing of antibiotics, corticosteroids and injectable drugs. There were also wide differences in the pattern of drug prescribing depending on the medical specialties. The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter by specialists was less than generalists except for the cardiologists. General practitioners, otorhinolaryngologists and general surgeons prescribed more antibiotics. Orthopedic surgeons and general practitioners were the top prescribers of injectable and corticosteroid drugs. The most frequently prescribed medicine groups varied according to the prescribers' medical specialty. Analgesics and antipyretics were the most prescribed preparations in general medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, general surgery and cardiology. Because of the wide variability in the pattern of drug prescribing depending on the medical specialties, specific performance indicators should be developed for each specific medical specialty for better assessing of prescribing quality in specialist physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high comorbidity of medical and psychiatric diagnoses in the general hospital population requires collaboration between various medical fields to provide comprehensive health care. This study aims to find the rate of psychiatric consultations, their timing and overall diagnostic trend in comparison to previous studies. Tehran University of Medical Sciences has got an active psychiatric consultation-liaison service which includes services provided by four faculty psychiatrists (two full-time and two part-time). This study was done in two general hospitals by simple sampling in available cases. For each consultation, a board-certified faculty psychiatrist conducted a clinical evaluation based on DSM-IV-TR. Other than psychiatric diagnoses, socio-demographic variables, relative consultation rates, reasons for referral, medical diagnoses and the time stay after admission were assessed. Among 503 patients who were visited by the consultation-liaison service, there were 54.3% female with mean age of 39.8 years. In 90.1% of consultations, at least one DSM-IV-TR diagnosis was made. The most frequent diagnosis groups were mood disorder (43.5%), adjustment disorder (10.9%) and cognitive disorder (7.6%). In about 10.9% of the consultations, multiple psychiatric diagnoses were made. The mean length of hospital stay before the consultation was 12.56 days (range=1-90, SD=13). Based on our findings, the mood and cognitive disorders still remain major foci of consultation-liaison practice in general hospitals; however our findings showed high rate of adjustment disorders diagnosis and ambiguous request for psychiatric consultation which need more interdisciplinary interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There exists a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in dermatological patients. Although, investigators have evaluated psychiatric aspects of the patients suffering from skin diseases; there are rare studies concerning mental health in pemphigus patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate mental health status and quality of life of newly diagnosed pemphigus patients. Materials and Methods: Between April 2007 and June 2008, all newly diagnosed pemphigus patients attending the outpatient clinic of a dermatological hospital were given a questionnaire comprising the GHQ-28 and DLQI to fill out. Results: Of 283 patients, 212 complete forms were returned. The bimodal score of GHQ ranged from 0 to 26 (Mean = 9.4) and the Likert score of GHQ ranged from 6 to 68 (Mean = 31.9). The DLQI score ranged between 0 and 30 (Mean of 13.8). A total of 157 patients (73.7%) were yielded to be possible cases of mental disorder considering GHQ-28 bimodal scores. Significant correlation was detected between the DLQI score and bimodal and Likert scoring of GHQ-28. Conclusion: Our study has depicted high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity in pemphigus patients. It underlines the fact that physicians, who are in-charge of care for these patients, are in an exceptional position to distinguish the psychiatric comorbidity and to take appropriate measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Graft stenosis is a major complication of coronary artery bypass grafting with autologous saphenous vein grafts. Nitric oxide (NO) is believed to prevent this phenomenon. We studied the effect of perivascular application of an NO donor on the degree of stenosis of such grafts in an ovine model. Methods: Twenty white Iranian ewes were randomized to coronary artery bypass grafting using autologous saphenous vein grafts with application of an elastomer gel containing diethylenetriamine NO adduct in 0.9% sodium chloride solution around the grafted vessel (intervention group) or with the gel containing the saline solution alone (controls). Graft vessels were studied after 1 year using spot angiography and histological examination. Results: The mean degree of stenosis was significantly lower in the intervention group than in the controls as found by histology (92.3 ± 5.5 vs. 80.9 ± 8.3%; p = 0.004). Although the difference in the angiographic score was not significant, the mean score was still lower in the intervention group (9.5 ± 11.3 vs. 12.0 ± 11.8). Conclusions: Perivascular application of an NO donor was, at least histologically, effective in reducing graft stenosis in our ovine model. This can be a step toward the development of drug-eluting coronary artery bypass grafts. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caesarean delivery in the absence of any medical indications has become a major issue of concern among the women’s health professionals. The patients’ choice of caesarean is influenced by several factors predominating by their physicians’ suggestion. Our objective was to examine factors that may affect the physicians’ responses to patients consulting the mode of delivery. Questionnaires were posted to 1,000 female obstetricians and gynaecologists practicing in Tehran in winter 2007. Questionnaires included demographic information of physicians and their history of pregnancy and delivery. Finally, they were asked their preferred mode of delivery and the mode they suggest when being consulted by parturient. From 1,000 physicians, 785 cases (78.5%) responded to the survey. The rate of responses in favour of suggesting normal vaginal delivery, Caesarean Section and painless vaginal delivery was 60.8, 25.6 and 13.6%, respectively. There was a correlation between the suggested and the preferred mode of delivery, it means that the physicians mostly suggested their self-preferred mode of delivery to their patients. Physicians normally suggest to their patients as the safe mode of delivery what they prefer for themselves. This preference and subsequent suggestion is influenced by different factors including their age, marital status, and previous modes of delivery. As conclusion, it is inferred that informing a physician to choose the right mode of delivery for herself leads to better suggestions to the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented regarding the promotion of the Iranian model of living, non-related kidney donation.