Frequency and causes of self-medication in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, North of Iran, 2018-2019.

PURPOSE: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a frequent respiratory disease. As self-medication is a common issue in the world, this study aimed to estimate its frequency in patients with CRS. METHODS: 144 CRS patients referred to a university hospital, were evaluated for self-medication, included type, duration, frequency, and its causes, their SNOT-22 questionnaire and Lund-MacKay scores. The data were analyzed using SPSS v.21 and the level of significance was considered as P ≥ 0.05. RESULTS: 30.6% of the cases used self-medication (65.9% used chemical drugs and 63.6% used herbal drugs), not associated with their age, gender, educational or economic level. The most common chemical drugs were antibiotics, analgesics and decongestants (75.9%, 55.2% and 10.3%, respectively) and the most common non-pharmaceutical agents included steam inhalation and herbal infusions (71.4%). The efficacy of self-medication was rated as "none" to "little" in 54.64% of cases. The mean SNOT-22 score was 59.54 ± 10.93 and 73.27 ± 8.12 in cases without and with self-medication (P = 0.034), and the mean Lund-MacKay score was 11.8 ± 5.3 and 17.2 ± 4.3 in cases without and with self-medication, respectively (P = 0.002). The top reasons for self-medication were "considering the disease unimportant" and believing chemical drugs being "harmful", "expensive", or "non-effective". Most patients who used self-medication did "not" advise it to others (80%). CONCLUSION: The high rate of self-medication in CRS patients calls for greater attention to this issue in these patients. It seems that self-medication is significantly associated with more severe grades of disease and lower QOL in CRS cases.

Melissa officinalis tea favourably affects the frequency of premature ventricular beats and cardiometabolic profile among patients with premature ventricular contraction: A randomised open-label controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Premature ventricular contraction (PVC) as one of the most common arrhythmias could worsen the morbidity of cardiovascular events, particularly concurrent with other risk factors. Considering the probable side effects of antiarrhythmic drugs chronic use, prescribing herbal medicines for such conditions is on the rise. Melissa officinalis (MO) is widely identified as an antiarrhythmic and cardioprotective agent but there is limited evidence for its clinical use. This research, thus, aimed to investigate the effects of MO tea among patients with PVCs. METHODS: The present 12-week randomised controlled trial enrolled 60 patients with confirmed diagnosis of moderate to low-grade PVCs. The patients in intervention group received MO teabags (containing 2-g dried leaves/250 mL in hot water) two times/day in addition to lifestyle modification recommendations, while control group only received lifestyle modification recommendations. After collecting the data, blood samples were gathered to explore serum concentrations of glucose and lipid markers. The number of premature ventricular beats and heart rates was determined by 24-hour rhythm Holter monitoring. RESULTS: On average, the patients aged 47 years and approximately 67.8% (n = 40) were women. The ANCOVA adjusted for baseline values and confounders revealed that patients in the MO tea group had significantly lower concentrations of triglyceride (adjusted mean (AM) = 144.75 mg/dL), total cholesterol (AM = 155.35 mg/dL), and fasting blood sugar (AM = 90.85 mg/dL), compared with the controls (AM = 174.27, 171.99, 99.84 mg/dL, respectively (P-value ≤.042). However, the intervention failed to affect LDL-C and HDL-C levels significantly. Significantly reduced frequency of 24-hour premature ventricular beats in the MO tea group (AM = 2142.39) was also noted compared with the controls (AM = 3126.05); (P-value = .017). The 24-hour heartbeats showed only a significant decrease within the intervention group (P-value < .01). CONCLUSION: Together, these results seem to support the higher cardioprotective effects of MO as a medicinal plant than lifestyle modifications alone. Nevertheless, further exploration of this hypothesis is warranted using large-scaled clinical trials.

Effect of aromatherapy with rose essential oil on the nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The present study aims to determine the effect of aromatherapy with rose essential oil on the rate of nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients. Materials and methods: This randomized controlled trial included 66 cancer patients who were randomly divided: the rose essential oil aromatherapy group (n=33) and the control group (n=33). The sampling period ranged from November 2022 to March 2023. The state of nausea and vomiting was assessed using the Visual Analog Scale. Results: The average scores of nausea and vomiting of both the second and third cycle in three time periods after chemotherapy (first, second, and third six hours) were significantly lower in the intervention group than the control group (P<0.001). Also, in the second cycle of chemotherapy, unlike the third cycle of chemotherapy, there was a significant interaction between group and time (ηp2=0.100, P=0.001, F (84.70, 1.37) = 6.91). In other words, the amount of difference between the mean scores of nausea and vomiting of the two control and intervention groups depended on the variable levels of time and vice versa. Conclusion: The results indicate the reducing effect of aromatherapy with rose essential oil on the severity of nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy in cancer patients. Therefore, it is recommended to be used in chemotherapy to reduce the severity of nausea and vomiting according to the patient's condition.

Comparison between the effect of aromatherapy with lavender and damask rose on sleep quality in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery: A randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have investigated the effect of lavender and damask rose aromatherapy on sleep quality. There is, however, little research to compare the impact of them over each other. The aim of current study was to compare the effect of aromatherapy with lavender and damask rose on sleep quality in patients after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery in Guilan Province, Iran, in 2017-2018. METHODS: In this randomized clinical trial (RCT) study, 97 patients undergoing CABG were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. In the intervention groups, the patients were asked by the researcher to inhale the lavender or damask rose randomly every night for 5 consecutive nights at 22:00. The control group received routine nursing care in compliance with the hospital procedure. Data were obtained by demographic-clinical and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) questionnaires. To analyze the data, chi-square test, t-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Wilcoxon test were used. RESULTS: During the 5-night intervention period, despite a relative improvement of sleep quality in intervention groups compared to the control group, none of the two aromatherapies had a statistically significant effect on any of delayed sleep (P = 0.514), sleep duration (P = 0.839), sleep efficiency (P = 0.067), sleep disturbances (P = 0.061), and daily functional disorders (P = 0.114) except for subjective sleep quality (P = 0.016) and use of sleep medications (P = 0.031). CONCLUSION: Using both aromatherapies with lavender and damask rose indicated positive effects on sleep quality of the CABG patients, but we could not find a superiority over each other.

The effects of seeds with hot and cold temperaments on serum thyroid hormones, corticosterone and urine vanillylmandelic acid concentrations of healthy rats.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Hot and cold temperaments are the basic concepts of Iranian traditional medicine (ITM). Nevertheless, studies on the functional mechanisms of medicinal herbs based on hot and cold temperaments are not very extensive. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of diets containing hot or cold temperament seeds according to ITM on some hormonal and neuromediator parameters with a regulatory role in thermogenesis and energy metabolism in acute (24 hr) and subacute (7-day) experiments that were performed on rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Each experiment was performed on 42 male Wistar rats, which were randomly divided into 7 groups. while 1 group received usual diet (controls), 6 other groups were fed with a diet containing 10% seeds, namely, anise, fennel, or ajowan (hot temperament groups) or cucumber, pumpkin, or watermelon (cold temperament groups), respectively. The levels of the rats׳ serum free thyroxin (FT4), free triiodothyronin (FT3), triiodothyronin (T3), thyroxin (T4), corticosterone and urine vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) were analyzed. RESULTS: After 24 hours, a significant decrease in FT3 was observed in groups that were fed anise or fennel seeds. However, a significant increase in T3 was observed in the ajowan seed-fed group, and no changes in other parameters were observed in this group. On the 7th day, FT4 was significantly increased in fennel seed-fed group; T3 was significantly increased in the anise, fennel, ajowan and watermelon seed-fed groups; corticosterone was significantly increased in the watermelon and pumpkin seed-fed groups; and VMA was significantly increased in the fennel seed-fed group and significantly decreased in the cucumber seed-fed group. CONCLUSION: Alterations induced by hot and cold temperament seeds in measured hormonal and neuromediator levels that have a regulatory role in thermogenesis and the body׳s energy metabolism revealed that hot and cold temperament characteristics of studied seeds may most likely be related to their intervention in the body׳s energy metabolism, in that hot temperament seeds may increase energy metabolism and cold temperament ones may decrease it.

The effects of selected hot and cold temperament herbs based on Iranian traditional medicine on some metabolic parameters in normal rats.

This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of diets containing some hot and cold temperament herb seeds according to Iranian traditional medicine (ITM) on some metabolic parameters in acute (24 h) and sub-acute (7 day) experiments that were performed on rats. For each experiment, effects of diets containing 10% herb seeds in category of hot (anise, fennel, ajowan) and cold (cucumber, watermelon, pumpkin) temperaments were analyzed on body weight gain, food intake, water consumption, urine output, serum glucose (SG) and insulin levels of rats. In the acute experiment, anise or fennel fed groups showed a significant decrease in food intake and there were not any changes in other parameters. The hot temperament groups in comparison with the cold temperament ones showed a significant decrease in food intake and a significant increase in SG level. In the sub-acute experiment, anise and fennel fed groups had a significant decrease in body weight gain on the 4thday. On the 7th day, the anise fed group experienced a significant decrease in body weight gain and a significant increase in SG levels. The groups that were fed hot temperament diets compared to the ones that consumed cold temperament diets showed a significant decrease in body weight gain and food intake rates and a considerable increase in SG levels. Considering the findings of this study, one can conclude that it is possible that hot temperament herbs such as anise and fennel be useful for humans for certain conditions such as weight control.