Fatemeh Karami; Ardashir Afrasiabifar; Shahla Najafi Doulatabad
Volume 20, Issue 12 , 2018, Pages 1-9
Abstract
Background: Fatigue is one of the most common complaints in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The use of non-pharmacological interventions, such as exercise, may be effective in reducing fatigue in these patients.Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of vestibular rehabilitation and ...
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Background: Fatigue is one of the most common complaints in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The use of non-pharmacological interventions, such as exercise, may be effective in reducing fatigue in these patients.Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of vestibular rehabilitation and Frenkel exercise on fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis. Methods: This study was a controlled randomized clinical trial. Seventy-five patients, who had medical records at the society of special diseases of the Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2016, were randomly assigned to three groups, namely, vestibular rehabilitation, Frenkel, and control. The program lasted for 12 weeks (three sessions per week). Fatigue was measured by the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) before the intervention, and after that, at six and twelve weeks after the initiation of intervention. Results: The mean score of fatigue in both experimental groups was decreased in a statistically significant manner after the end of the exercises, whereas it was increased in the control group. The reduction in fatigue was statistically significant in the vestibular rehabilitation exercise in comparison with the Frenkel exercise. The total fatigue in the vestibular rehabilitation group at six and twelve weeks after the intervention was -14.1 and -33.1, respectively, in comparison with before the interventions yet in the Frenkel group it was reported as -8 and -17.9, respectively. The comparison of the FIS subscales showed that there was a difference betweenthe vestibular rehabilitation and Frenkel group in both the FIS physical (P = 0.001) and the psychosocial subscales (P = 0.01), yet no difference was observed between the two groups in the FIS cognitive subscale (P = 0.1) at twelve weeks after the intervention. Conclusions: Both vestibular rehabilitation and Frenkel exercise could reduce fatigue in MS patients, however, vestibular rehabili- tation was more effective compared to the Frenkel exercise in reducing fatigue.
Ardashir Afrasiabifar; Zahra Mehri; Nazafarin Hosseini
Volume 19, Issue 2 , February 2017, , Pages 1-7
Abstract
Background: While the application of anti-pruritus medications may be useful for hemodialysis (HD) patients, they are at risk of drug toxicity because of their renal inability to eliminate drug metabolites.Objectives: To examine the effect of the topical application of sweet almond oil on reducing uremic ...
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Background: While the application of anti-pruritus medications may be useful for hemodialysis (HD) patients, they are at risk of drug toxicity because of their renal inability to eliminate drug metabolites.Objectives: To examine the effect of the topical application of sweet almond oil on reducing uremic pruritus in HD patients.Methods: This study is a randomized clinical trial research. The study population consisted of patients referred in 2013 to the HD ward of Shahid Beheshti hospital, which is affiliated with Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Iran. From a total of 60 patients, 42 that met the inclusion criteria were selected using a nonrandom sampling method; they were allocated to two groups through a random-allocation method. Sweet almond oil (with a traditional medicine certification and a registration number for the production license) was topically applied on the pruritus location(s) in the intervention group once daily over two weeks. The data were collected using a pruritic score questionnaire at one week and two weeks post-intervention. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, such as central tendency and dispersion indices, as well as statistical tests, including repeated measures ANOVA with a P-value significantly less than 0.05 and a confidence interval of 95%.Results: Pre-intervention, there was no significant difference in the mean scores for the severity of pruritus between the test and control groups, but significant differences were observed between the two groups (P < 0.05) at one week and two weeks postintervention. The result of repeated measures ANOVA for within group comparison shows a significant difference in the mean of pruritus severity pre-intervention (19.63±11.67), one week post-intervention (12.22±11.33), and two weeks post-intervention (7.27± 5.74) (P < 0.05) in the test group.Conclusions: In this study, topical application of sweet almond oil, which was not followed by any specific complications, was able to significantly reduce the uremic pruritus in hemodialysis patients; however, these findings require further studies.
