Background: Gastrointestinal cancer is the first leading cause of cancer related deaths in men and the second among women in Iran. An investigation was carried out to examine anxiety and depression in this group of patients and to investigate whether the knowledge of cancer diagnosis affect their psychological distress.

Background: Evidence suggests that truth telling and honest disclosure of cancer diagnosis could lead to improved outcomes in cancer patients. To examine such findings in Iran, this trial aimed to study the various dimensions of quality of life in patients with gastrointestinal cancer and to compare these variables among those who knew their diagnosis and those who did not.

BackgroundPain is said to be one of the most feared and distressing symptoms of cancer and one that disrupts all aspects of life. The purposes of this study were: 1) to compare depression and quality of life among Iranian cancer patients with and without pain; and 2) to determine the relationships between pain beliefs and depression and quality of life.MethodA consecutive sample of gastrointestinal cancer patients attending to Tehran Cancer Institute were entered into the study. Three standard instruments were used to measure quality of life (the EORTC QLQ-C30), depression (the HADS) and pain beliefs (the PBPI).ResultsA total of 142 hospitalized gastrointestinal cancer patients, 98 with pain and 44 without pain were studied. The main findings of this study were that cancer patients with pain reported significantly lower levels of role functioning, emotional functioning and global quality of life. They also showed higher levels of depression than cancer patients who did not experience pain. Among patients with pain, higher scores on pain permanence and pain consistency were positively and significantly associated with higher depression. Also, higher scores on pain consistency were negatively and significantly associated with global quality of life.ConclusionThis study has demonstrated the effect of cancer pain on patients' quality of life and emotional status and has supported the multidimensional notion of the cancer pain experience in cancer patients. Although these data are correlational, they provide additional support for a biopsychosocial model of chronic pain.

BackgroundSulfur mustard (SM) is an alkylating agent that induces short and long term toxicity on various organs. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term psychological symptoms among samples of exposed to sulfur mustard gas compared with unexposed civilians 20 years after exposure.MethodsThis historical cohort study was conducted on 495 civilians of Sardasht and Rabat in two age matched groups, including 367 sulfur mustard exposed participants from Sardasht and 128 unexposed subjects from Rabat. Psychological symptoms was assessed using the Symptom Check List-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) including measures of somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism providing three global distress indices namely: Global Severity Index (GSI), Positive Symptom Total (PST) and Positive Symptom Distress Index (PSDI). Comparison was made between exposed and unexposed civilians.ResultsThere were significant differences in somatization (P = 0.002), obsessive-compulsive (P = 0.031), depression (P = 0.007), anxiety (P = 0.042), and hostility (P = 0.002), between the exposed and unexposed groups. In addition there were significant differences between two groups concerning the GSI (P = 0.045) and the PSDI (P < 0.001). The differences between two groups in other subscales were not significant.ConclusionsThe findings from this study showed that civilians who exposed to sulfur mustard gas were suffering from a number of psychological symptoms even 20 years after exposure. Providing mental health services and more resource allocation for this community are highly recommended.

Context: Mindfulness-based interventions have shown promising therapeutic outcomes in improving well-being, mental health, general health, and quality of life, however, findings in this regard are inconsistent. The present study aimed at clarifying this inconsistency in the literature focusing on the Iranian studies through a systematic review and meta-analysis study. Evidence Acquisition: The databases of Pubmed, Scopus, Doaj, EBSCO, Iranmedex, MagIran, SID, and Comprehensive Human Sciences Portal, and additional resources were searched using the set terms of "mindfulness" OR "mindfulness-based cognitive therapy" OR "MBCT" OR "mindfulness-based stress reduction" OR "MBSR" AND "intervention" AND "well-being" OR "health" OR "quality of life" and the time limit of the records was set between March 2008 and May 2017. The language of search was restricted to English and Farsi. Only studies conducted on Iranian populations were selected in this study. Thirty-five studies conducted on 3013 subjects were assessed. Cochrane Q-test and I-squared index were used to detect the heterogeneity among results, and fixed effect model with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was applied. The effect size of mindfulness-based interventions on well-being, mental health, general health, and quality of life improvement, measured by Hedge's g ratios, were respectively 1.54, 1.08, 0.89, and 1.87. Results: The findings showed that the effect size of mindfulness-based interventions on well-being, mental health, general health, and quality of life improvement were of high magnitude, according to the Cohen's table. Conclusion: Mindfulness-based interventions effectively improved well-being, health, and quality of life.