Background: due to their demanding lifestyle, sleep deprivation is common amongst the medical students. A study, which followed 1,007 young adults at a health maintenance organization for 3.5 years, found that a history of insomnia predicted new-onset depression, also other psychiatric disorders. Another study showed that sleeping disorders and insomnia are negatively associated with academic performance in medical students in Saudi Arabia. The relationship between sleeping disorders among medical students in Saudi Arabia; about anti-insomnia medications is insufficiently addressed in the literature. This study aimed to assess the relationship between sleep habits and sleep duration with academic performance in the medical students. Objectives: this study aimed to determine sleep pattern disorders among medical students, as well as, the use of anti-insomnia medications and alsoto define the relation regarding the academic performance among the sample medical students in Saudi Arabia. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study which was conducted among the medical students at three different medical schools, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from May 2014 to December 2014.. A self-administrated randomized questionnaire was developed and designed in the Arabic language in the form of multiple choices and short answers, concerning age, gender, educational level, grade point average GPA, financial status, total sleep hours per day, mid-day naps duration, quality and latency of sleep and using of antiinsomnia medications. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was also involved in the questionnaire. Results: out of 276 received questionnaires, 237 questionnaires were completed. Out of those 237 subjects, 92 subjects were female students (38.7%), and 145 were male students (60.9%). The mean age was 22 ±2.37. Regarding GPA, 122 participants got below average GPA, 28 participants got average GPA, 62 participants got an average GPA, while 25 participants got an excellent GPA (51.3%, 11.8%, 26.1%,10.5% respectively). 127 of the participants were used medications to help them to sleep, and 9.7% used it occasionally, whereas 110 of the participants did not use any medication. Out of 127 participants who used the medications, 92.5% of them agreed that medications they took were helpful and effective.Conclusion: this study showed a significant relationship between the use of anti-insomnia medications and the academic performance of medical students, further committee and education should be established by the universities and faculties to enhance the student's awareness to the issue of the chronic use of anti-insomnia medications at first and to apply a perfectly healthy environment with less stress and condensed classes and exams.

BackgroundExtensive studies have revealed an increased risk of major adverse cardiac outcomes in patients with severe psoriasis. However, some studies show conflicting results.ObjectiveThis study was conducted to assess the CV risk factors in psoriasis patients, and compare it with non-psoriatic patients. In addition, we evaluated if psoriasis is an independent CV risk factor, if its severity can predict CV risk, and if systemic psoriasis treatments modify CV risk.MethodsThis was a case-control study in 200 participants -100 with psoriasis, and 100 with dermatitis who served as the control. The study was carried out from September 2015 to September 2016. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires, one each for both groups. Questions include body surface area, current psoriasis/dermatitis therapies, presence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking history, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), elevated cholesterol, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) history.ResultsAnalyses of the associations between psoriasis and CV symptoms has demonstrated that psoriasis was associated with CAD (p<0.001) and hospitalizations (p<0.001) due to CAD. We found that the psoriasis group have the following association: Angina (p=0.005), hypertension (p=0.001), diabetes mellitus (p=0.016), hypercholesterolemia (p=0.015), and “CAD succeeding psoriasis (p=0.001)” (it assesses how many patients with psoriasis had CAD after they are diagnosed with psoriasis). Our study showed that there was no statistically significant risk of CVD in dermatitis patients (p=0.16). There was no association between severity of psoriasis and CV risk (p=0.07).ConclusionsThere is a higher CV risk prevalence among Saudi psoriatic patients and this confirms that psoriasis is an independent CV risk factor in this population.

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Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a leading cause of death in the United States with over three million cases per year. Since the mid-1970s, the total number of deaths related to AMI in the United States has not declined. Studies suggest that women with AMI have worse outcomes compared to men. However, there is limited information regarding this topic among Hispanics. This study was a secondary analysis of the Puerto Rican Heart Attack Study, which reviewed the records of Hispanic patients of Puerto Rico hospitalized for AMI at 21 academic and/or non-teaching hospitals in 2007, 2009 and 2011. This study set examined the differences in in-hospital mortality rates between genders. A p-value of 0.2 was used to select possible confounders and the chi-square test was used to examine associations between categorical variables. Factors associated with in-hospital mortality rates were identified using logistic regression. Collinearity was assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients. The 95% confidence interval and a p-value of 0.05 were used to determine statistical significance of odds ratios. Analysis was restricted to patients with ICD-9-CM code 410-414 who are above 18 (n = 2265). In our sample, there were more men than women (1291 versus 974, respectively). Men were younger and smoked more compared to women. Compared to men, women were older and suffered more comorbidities, such as stroke and congestive heart failure (CHF). Women had higher rates of in-hospital mortality compared to men (OR = 1.4, p = 0.040). Factors associated with higher rates of in-hospital mortality included age and CHF (p<0.001). Patients with CHF showed higher rates of in-hospital deaths compared to patients who did not have CHF (OR = 1.6, p = 0.026). Patients over the age of 86 showed higher odds of in-hospital death compared to younger patients (OR = 10.5, p <0.001) Significant disparities existed by gender in this sample of Hispanic AMI patients, with women showing higher in-hospital mortality compared to men. Women over 50 should perform regular checkups and discuss hormone replacement therapy or follow other preventive measures as suggested by their healthcare provider.