Introduction: Occupational stress results from work demands and pressures that are not matched with abilities and characteristics of an employee. It is one of the main causes of job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, work delays, desertion and early retirement. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate occupational stress among female employees working at the Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptiveanalytical study was performed in 2015 on 400 female employees of the university who were enrolled via stratified and quota sampling. Data were collected using the standard Osipow occupational stress questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire. The data were analyzed in SPSS (version 16) using independent t-test, ANOVA and Tukey's test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Mean total score of occupational stress was 173.44 ± 25.15. Role ambiguity (score: 33.57 ± 5.74) and physical environment (score: 22.56 ± 8.44) had the highest and lowest impact on occupational stress, respectively. Moreover, 146 contractual employees (52.1%) experienced occupational stress. Total occupational stress was significantly correlated with all study variables including education level (P=0.02), income (P=0.0001), service sector (P=0.001), marital status (P=0.01), employment status (P=0.0001) and work experience (P=0.04). Conclusions: Role ambiguity is the main source of stress for female employees working at the Golestan University of Medical Sciences. Therefore, it is necessary to design individual and organization trainings to help employees overcome role ambiguity.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease and its etiology has not fully understood in conventional medicine. It also influences the quality of life as a result of its recurrence and progressive clinical course, then, it has been considered an important public health concern. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of prescription therapy based on the Persian Medicine as a complementary treatment for the mitigation of the symptoms of UC as well as improvement in the disease severity. A total of 30 UC patients with an age range of 15-70 years participated in this clinical trial. They were treated with the “Sahj” capsule containing: Curcuma longa L., Punica granatum L., and Terminalia chebula Retz. for 4 weeks. The “Sahj” capsule was prepared based on the Persian Medicine resources. The bowel frequency at day/night, urgency of defecation, general health, and blood in stool were assessed pre/post intervention and the results were compared before and after the clinical trial. The “Sahj” capsule significantly enhanced the clinical findings. There was a significant increase in simple clinical colitis activity index (SCCAI) score in response to the prescription of the “Sahj” capsule (7.73 ± 1.98 before and 4.30 ± 1.12 after the trial) in which general health condition of patients was increased by 50% after the clinical trial. Bowel frequency at day was remarkably decreased by totally 15 patients with the scores of 1, 2 and 3 were enrolled to score 0. Also, bowel frequency at night was not statically significant (p = 0.267) in spite of 7 patients were improved their score (changed their score from 2 to 1).  Urgency of defecation (p 0.003) and blood in stool (p 0.0001) were significantly decreased compared with pre-intervention stage. These findings suggest an appropriate complementary treatment to reduce the symptoms of ulcerative colitis. However, further studies with larger sample size are warranted to assess the efficacy and safety of the “Sahj” capsule in the treatment of UC.