Birth of the special child is a major shock for the parents and has distressing effects on social, family, psychological, emotional, economical and interpersonal relationship of the parents. Many factors can influence the quality of life of the parents with mentally challenged children in family. Objectives:(1) The present study is aimed to assess the quality of life among the mothers of mentally challenged children in selected special schools at Ernakulam, Kerala; (2) To determine the association between quality of life and selected demographical variables like age, education, occupation, type of family, area of living, number of children's affected with disability, severity of disability. Methods: 30 mothers of mentally children who presented to the Navajeevan special school at Ernakulam from June to July 2019 were enrolled after getting informed consent and study approval. Demographic data of children and mothers in the study group by convenient sampling were entered into a proforma and the mothers were administered with WHO-QOL BREF Questionnaire to assess the Quality of life. Results: The study results were found that mothers had low to moderate Quality of life in all the domains, i.e., physical health, psychological health, social relationship, environmental health. Higher mean score was observed in the social relationship domain. When the educational status of the parent is higher, mothers reported a low Quality of life score, though no such difference was seen with the educational status, occupation of mothers or other variables. Conclusion: These finding must be taken into account in providing better and more specific supports and interventions for mothers to improving Quality of life. Social support and different coping strategies should be developed to respond positively to individual changing needs of mothers from the stress of having a child with disabilities.

Mentally challenged children have the insufficient development of intellectual skills. The children suffering from mental disability are considered as burden by most of the family members. The objectives of this study were to: (1) assess the existing level of Stress and coping among the mothers of mentally challenged children in selected special schools (2) correlate the Stress and Coping in mothers of mentally challenged children (3) associate the level of Stress and Coping with selected demographical variables. Method: This study was conducted in the 30 mothers of mentally challenged children in selected special schools, at Ernakulum District in Kerala. Each parent was evaluated using the Family Interview for Stress and Coping (FISC) in Mental Retarded. The results of the present study were found that mothers of mentally challenged children had moderate to severe level of stress and also positive correlation with level of stress and coping and education of mothers had association with stress and coping. The study findings were concluded that attempts should be made to investigate specific interventional strategies for coping the stress in mothers of mentally challenged children.

The objective of this study is to Assess the Impact of Clinical pharmacy services on Health-related quality of life in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients. The prospective observational study was conducted in 48 Rheumatoid Arthritis patients for a period of 3 months at Vivekanandha Medical Care Hospital, Elayampalayam. During baseline, patient data were collected, quality of life was assessed by using the SF-36 Questionnaire and Patient counselling was provided by using Patient information leaflet. At the second visit the same questionnaire was administered and the responses were documented finally, the comparative score was calculated and the improvement in the quality of life was assessed. Our study results show that there is a statistically significant difference between the baseline and follow up values for various domains of SF 36 questionnaire which implies that a remarkable improvement in the quality of life was observed in the patients affected with rheumatoid arthritis after providing clinical pharmacy services. Our study concludes that clinical pharmacist mediated services have an important role in improving the patient's health related quality of life.

Background This retrospective, real-world study evaluated the prevalence of brain metastases, clinicodemographic characteristics, systemic treatments, and factors associated with overall survival among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) in the US. We also described the genomic characterization of 180 brain metastatic specimens and frequency of clinically actionable genes. Materials and Methods De-identified electronic health records-derived data of adult patients diagnosed with aNSCLC between 2011 and 2017 were analyzed from a US-nationwide clinicogenomic database. Results Of 3257 adult patients with aNSCLC included in the study, approximately 31% (n = 1018) had brain metastases. Of these 1018 patients, 71% (n = 726) were diagnosed with brain metastases at initial NSCLC diagnosis; 57% (n = 583) of patients with brain metastases received systemic treatment. Platinum-based chemotherapy combinations were the most common first-line therapy; single-agent chemotherapies, epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and platinum-based chemotherapy combinations were used in second line. Patients with brain metastases had a 1.56 times greater risk of death versus those with no brain metastases. In the brain metastatic specimens (n = 180), a high frequency of genomic alterations in the p53, MAPK, PI3K, mTOR, and cell-cycle associated pathways was observed. Conclusion The frequency of brain metastases at initial clinical presentation and associated poor prognosis for patients in this cohort underscores the importance of early screening for brain metastasis in NSCLC. Genomic alterations frequently identified in this study emphasize the continued need for genomic research and investigation of targeted therapies in patients with brain metastases.