Journal of Pharmaceutical Research International

Background: Anxiety is one of the challenging problems among the general population. It may have a negative impact on the person productivity, also on his physical and mental health. Scientific studies indicate high prevalence of anxiety among medical students compared to the general population.

Aims: Level of anxiety among pre-clinical and clinical medical students in Saudi Arabia

Methods: A cross-sectional study with A special Arabic language questionnaire form by using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scale. It was electronically distributed through the social media platforms using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scale.

Results: The study included 500 medical students from different colleges of medicine, Saudi Arabia. 319 (63.8%) students were females and 181 (36.2%) were males. High anxiety level was detected among 29 (5.8%) students, 88 (17.6%) students had moderate anxiety level while the majority 383 (76.6%) students had low anxiety level.

Introduction: COVID-19 has changed the world fabric. While many still haven’t recovered from the grief of losing their loved ones; the virus continues to mutate leaving the world to deal with a social and economic pandemic. In this study we aim at determining an association between CT SCORE and the severity of COVID-19 thereby understanding the prognosis/severity of disease in patients.

Method: A prevalidated google questionnaire was used to obtain data. The study population consisted of people who tested real time RT-PCR COVID-19 positive.

Results: A statistically significant correlation was seen between CT score and outcome of disease.

Conclusion: Routine CT scan of suspected COVID-19 cases gives early diagnosis; it could also guide in hastening the treatment received by the patient and improve overall prognosis be used as a guide for the management of the patients and hence improve overall prognosis.

Aims: With the progress made in the treatment of cardiovascular patients, the use of anticoagulants such as warfarin, aspirin, ticlopidine, etc. have increased. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of use of warfarin-interfering drugs in warfarin toxicity patients admitted to the emergency ward of Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, from March to August 2016.

Materials and Methods: In this original cross-sectional study after obtaining the approval of the university's ethics committee, 133 patients with warfarin toxicity admitted from March to August 2016 were included in the study. The hospital records of the patients were reviewed, and based on the detailed history taken from the patients the information related to the simultaneous use of different drugs, the duration of warfarin use, the reasons for warfarin use, and the symptoms of warfarin toxicity were extracted. SPSS version 24 software was used for data analysis (p<0.05).

Results: Artificial heart valve was the most common indication for warfarin use (48%). Potentially fatal bleeding occurred in 85% of patients, and gastrointestinal bleeding was the most common symptom of warfarin toxicity (37.6%). The most common drugs used were aspirin (62.4%), metoprolol (33.1%), and statins (28.8%).

Conclusion: In this study, a high frequency of drug interactions with warfarin was observed, which seems to play a significant role in the occurrence of warfarin toxicity. The most common drug interactions were observed in the simultaneous use of aspirin, metoprolol, and statins. Careful monitoring of the type of drugs used by patients is extremely important in providing safe and effective treatment and reducing side effects.

Objectives:  The study explored the profiles of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) of South Asian Bangladeshi immigrants aged > 55, access to health workshops about NCDs for self-care, and the types of support they needed to control and manage their NCDs.

Methods:  The study was cross-sectional. The participants were Bangladeshi immigrants aged > 55 living in Toronto. They attended an ethnic community organization for services from January to March 2020, and the study included participants from them (purposively). Pretested structured and semi-structured questionnaires were applied to collect the information. The study used chi-square and logistic regression for data analysis.  

Results: The study included 191 participants; among the participants, males and females were 44.0% (84) and 56.0% (107), respectively, more than half of them (53.4%, 102) were aged > 60 years, and the majority (69.6%, 133) lived in Canada for more than five years. The frequently mentioned NCDs by gender perspective were diabetes (male vs. female: 51.2% vs. 57.9%), high blood pressure (male vs. female: 48.8% vs. 54.2%), and high cholesterol (male vs. female: 33.3% vs. 36.4%). They also mentioned arthritis/chronic joint pain (22.0%, 44), anxiety and depression (16.2%, 31), and heart disease (15.2%, 29). Females, compared to males, were more likely to have multiple NCDs, AOR= 1.62, 95% CI: 0.86, 3.04. Also, the participants aged > 60 years were 2.53 times more likely to have multiple NCDs than those who were < 60 years (95% CI: 1.34, 4.77), and the participants who arrived in Canada in five years were more likely to have multiple NCDs, AOR=1.42, 95% CI: 0.72, 2.83) compared to the group more than five years. Furthermore, 51.8% (99) of participants had no access to health workshops/ health information about NCDs for self-management. Most needed caregiver support from family members (59.7%, 114) to manage NCDs. Also, they required accompaniment support to go to health care providers (40.3%, 77), needed a doctor's cooperation (34.0%, 65), prescription management support (28.3%, 54), and home support (26.7%, 51) for managing the diseases.  

Conclusion: The profile of NCDs of Bangladeshi immigrants aged > 55 years were high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Gender and sociodemographic variables changed the profile of NCDs in Bangladeshi immigrants. Participants needed better health information access and family care support to manage NCDs. Local ethnic community services can design a community-based health, home, and caregiver support approach to address the NCDs of Bangladeshi immigrants. 

Objective: A vital anti-oxidant, β-carotene has the capacity to reduce reactive oxidative stress, metabolic syndrome such as Type 2 (T2) Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and prevent inflammation, obesity, alzheimer and cardiovascular diseases in human. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of β-carotene on streptozotocin (STZ)- induced T2DM rats.

Methods: Diabetes was induced in Wister rats through the intraperitoneal administration of STZ (50 mg/kg b.w.). Antihyperlipidemic activities of β-carotene were evaluated by oral dose (10 mg/70 kg b.w.) once daily for 21 days. Metformin (12.1 mg/kg b.w.) was used as a positive control.

Results: Blood samples of rats were drawn by tail vein puncture and cardiac puncture to determine the fasting blood glucose (FBG) and serum level of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), respectively. The result of individual treatment of β-carotene and metformin significantly (p<0.001) reversed the diabetes induced increase in FBG, LDL, TC and TG, whereas pointedly increased the STZ-induced decrease in HDL, if compared to the diabetic control.

Conclusion: The monotherapy of β-carotene had important antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic effects and provided a scientific rationale for their use in antidiabetic therapy as a potential antioxidant.