The results indicated that risperidone augmentation with fluvoxamine could significantly improve cognitive impairments and negative symptoms among patients with schizophrenia. Moreover, this augmentation led to higher quality of life among these patients.
Background: Schizophrenia is one of the most serious psychiatric diseases that affects the patient’s family members in addition to the patient himself. This disease can lead to depression and anxiety in the family members of the patient and even affect their functioning. Objectives: The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of a short-term family psychoeducation course on the depression and anxiety family functioning in caregivers Methods: In this before-after clinical trial, 163 first-degree family members of patients with schizophrenia were invited to participate in a short-term FPE course. A total of 65 of this group attended the first training session. Prior to the first session, the beck depression inventory (BDI), the beck anxiety inventory (BAI), and the family assessment device (FAD) were completed for the participants based on a family functioning model. Six months after the end of the FPE course, the 36 subjects who had completed the initial questionnaires and fully attended the sessions were invited to complete the questionnaires again. A total of 31 subjects completed the questionnaires again at this stage. The data were analyzed by SPSS-20 software using Mann–Whitney and Wilcoxon rank tests. Results: The mean age of the participants in both stages of questionnaire completion was 48.64 ± 11.85 years. Among them, 16 (51.6%) were female, and 15 (48.4%) were male. Also, six (19.4%) subjects had an education above high school, and mothers were the most frequent participating family members with a frequency of 11 (35.5%). The anxiety and depression scores of these subjects were 10.8 ± 5.14 and 6.9 ± 2.45 at baseline, respectively. These scores decreased significantly after six months to 5.03 ± 2.48 and 4.40 ± 1.9, respectively. In addition, among family functioning, Role and Behavioral control was significantly improved (P-value < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that depression and anxiety levels decreased in the family members of the examined patients six months after an FPE course. This effect can be further investigated through studies conducted with control groups. These findings suggest that the integration and institutionalization of FPE programs in the healthcare system are essential for improving the status of patient caregivers with severe psychiatric illnesses and their families.
IntroductionSchizophrenia is a severe disease which affects different aspects of behavior, including cognitive functions. The most important fields of cognitive disorders in schizophrenia are working memory, vigilance/attention, learning by oral and visual memory, argument and resolving, analysis rate and social knowledge.AimsThis study was designed to assess the effects of fluvoxamine on cognitive functions of schizophrenic patients.MethodThirty-six patients with schizophrenia, all male, were treated with 100 mg fluvoxamine and a second generation anti-psychotic for 4 weeks and before and after treatment, their cognitive functions were assessed by Wechsler-3 memory scale (WMS-revised) and negative symptoms by scale for the assessment of negative symptoms (SANS).ResultsIn our study, the average patients’ scores increased in Wechsler-3 memory scale (WMS-revised) before and after receiving fluvoxamine (P < 0.001). This study couldn’t show a statistically significant difference between the patients’ scores in negative symptoms (SANS test) before and after the treatment course (P = 0.59) There was a negative statistically significant correlation found between WMS score before and after the intervention and the level of education, living area and cigarette smoking. Increasing scores in the test was statistically correlated with lower education, cigarette smoking and living in rural area.ConclusionAugmented treatment with fluvoxamine, probably has effects on some parts of cognitive abilities of male schizophrenic patients which are assessable by Wechsler-3 memory scale. Therefore further studies on evaluation of fluvoxamine effects in other fields of cognitive abilities like concentration and attention in schizophrenic patients are still required.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
IntroductionThe prevalence of smoking in patients under methadone maintenance therapy is high (85–98%). Most of these patients tend to quit smoking, but only a few of them receive treatment or referred to quit smoking. Recent study on aripiprazole, has been shown to reduce smoking.AimsThe aim of this study was to evaluate aripiprazole on smoking in patients under methadone maintenance therapy.Material and methodThis study was a double-blind intervention study. Patients under Methadone maintenance therapy in 22 Bahman Hospital randomly divided into two intervention and control group. First with the FTQ questionnaire, nicotine dependency assessed in all patients. Then, 6-week aripiprazole administered to intervention group. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21.ResultsThe age range of patients was 67–25 years. Two groups were matched in demographic characteristics. Finally, mean number of FTQ questionnaire in case group before intervention was 8.9 ± 1.4 and after intervention was 8.4 ± 1.6. This difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0007).ConclusionThe study results show the aripiprazole effect in reducing the desire to smoke in patients under methadone maintenance therapy. The overall level of dependency on nicotine on the basis of test FTQ has decreased. By choosing aripiprazole as adjunctive therapy to quit smoking, by reducing the tendency of patients to smoking, can decrease cardiovascular complications and other problems caused by smoking and we can reduce the mortality rate of these patients.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
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