Introduction: The fear of childbirth (FOC) has an adverse effect on the physical and mental health of pregnant women and increases adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. Previous research reported the effect of psychological interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation therapies, and short-term psycho-educational intervention on FOC. We examined whether adding motivational interviewing (MI) psychotherapy to prenatal usual care (PUC) is superior to PUC alone to reduce the scores of FOC, pregnancy stress, and self-efficacy.Materials and Methods: An RCT with two-arm parallel groups and 1:1 allocation ratio assigned 70 pregnant women (aged 18-50) attending public health centers in an education hospital in Iran to receive five sessions of group MI psychotherapy plus PUC (N = 35) or to receive PUC alone (N = 35). The primary outcomes were the FOC scores (Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire, W-DEQ), pregnancy-specific stress (Prenatal Distress Questionnaire, NuPDQ), anxiety (Spielberger state anxiety), and Childbirth Self-Efficacy Index (CBSI) at 5 weeks post-randomization. Additional measures included subscales of the W-DEQ and the NuPDQ, patients' compliance, and satisfaction with psychotherapy intervention at 5 weeks post-randomization as secondary outcomes.Main Results: The post-trial results indicated that the outcome scores diminished more considerably in psychotherapy than in PUC for total FOC scale with a large effect size (B = −23.54, p = < 0.001, η 2 η 2 = 0.27), for total pregnancy stress with a large effect size (B = −4.51, p = < 0.001, η 2 = 19), and for state anxiety with a large effect size (B = −12.42, p = < 0.001, η 2 = 0.22). However, the score of self-efficacy and concern about physical symptoms did not differ between the psychotherapy and PUC groups (P < 0.05).

Pregnancy is a unique event for every woman's life which is accompanied by psychological, social and physiological changes . This period requires physical and psychological adjustments for the women, which can affect pregnancy outcomes depending on their function (Vitorino et al., 2018). Meanwhile, the natural process of pregnancy can be disrupted by internal and external stressors (Pakzad et al., 2018). Stress may lead to adverse neonatal outcomes such as preterm labour, miscarriage and low birth weight

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IntroductionAlthough there are some studies regarding the clinical characteristics and outcome of nasopharyngeal tumors, one such study from Iran has not been reported to date. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical features, treatment, and consequences of nasopharyngeal lesions.MethodsIn this cross sectional study, we conducted a retrospective review of patients who were diagnosed with nasopharyngeal pathologies and treated at Shahid Sadoughi Hospital and Shahid Ramazanzadeh Radiotherapy Center in Yazd, Iran, over a period of 10 years (from 2005 to 2014). The variables in the study were the patient’s hospital registration number, date, name, age, gender, address, topography, clinical symptoms, morphology, stage, types of treatment, and survival for each subject. Survival data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier estimates, and multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox regression method. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM-SPSS, version 22.ResultsIn the study, there were 123 patients, 85 males and 38 females, who had nasopharyngeal lesions. The mean age at diagnosis was 41.51 ± 20.33 years. There were 83 patients with malignant neoplasms and 40 patients with non-malignant lesions. The most common malignant tumor was nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and the most common benign lesion was angiofibroma. Survival analysis was performed for the 83 patients who had malignant neoplasms, and survival was found to be 94.5 ± 4.32 months. There were significant differences in survival based on the stage of the disease, histological type, and the type of treatment (p = 0.001, 0.02, and 0.003, respectively).ConclusionIn our institutional study, malignant tumors were more common than benign lesions. Patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma presented relatively late and at an advanced stage. Regular follow-up is necessary for early detection, recurrence, or metastases of malignant tumors.