Background & Aim: Drug addiction, especially addiction to Ecstasy has ruinous effect on lives. Lack of knowledge is the most important cause of Ecstasy use among young adults. Research studies showed that students use these pills in order to get comfort and to overcome grieves. Addiction to ecstasy has been increased in Iran in recent years. This study was carried out to assess the factors associated to Ecstasy use in students of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences.

Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 200 students using clustered, random sampling. Data collection tool was a structured valid and reliable questionnaire containing 28 questions in two sections. Data were analyzed using Student t-test, ANOVA and chi-square tests.

Results: Results indicated that the prevalence of Ecstasy use was 1.5%. Prevalence of alcohol and cigarette use was 1.5% too. Mean score of knowledge on Ecstasy was 9.8% (SD=3.8). Knowledge of the female students was higher than the knowledge of male ones. About 86.7% of the students took Ecstasy in order to end grieve due to family problems. Most important associated factors to Ecstasy use were: positive attitude toward Ecstasy use, lack of knowledge (96.5%), peer pressure (96%), and lck of parents&apos attention to their young children (94.5%).

Conclusion: Lack of knowledge about complications of addiction to Ecstasy is the most important factor leading to addiction among students. Living in places such as dormitories and rented houses, and lack of parents&apos control over their children can be important factors related to addiction of students to Ecstasy, as well.

Background & Aim: Fatigue is a premature symptom in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study aimed to determine effect of the home-based pulmonary rehabilitation on fatigue among patients with COPD.

Methods & Materials: In this clinical trial, 36 patients were recruited among from 100 patients with COPD according to inclusion criteria in Masih Daneshvari hospital in 2010. Participants were allocated into two control and intervention groups using random block sampling. In the intervention group, the pulmonary rehabilitation program was implemented during three educational sessions in three consecutive days. Fatigue was measured using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) before and seven weeks after discharge. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests (Independent and paired t-test, chi-square and covariance analysis).

Results: At baseline, the mean scores of fatigue were 47.11 and 47.50 in the experimental and control groups, respectively (P=0.902). After the intervention, the mean scores of fatigue reached 21.94 and 54.64 in the experimental and control groups, respectively (P<0.001).

Conclusion: According to results of the study, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation nursing could decrease fatigue in patients with COPD.

  Nearly a century has passed since the establishment of nursing education programs in Iran. The first nursing school was established in 1916 (1294 Solar Hijri) in Urmia and moved to Tabriz after a year due to the World War.

  Also, nursing research in Iran has a history of nearly half a century. Nursing research in Iran first began independently in 1970s (1350s SH) with starting admission in master of nursing by nursing schools. Before that, nurses usually participated in studies as an assistant. Most nursing research in this decade included descriptive research performed by master students as their dissertations which were mainly guided by non-nurse supervisors.

  In 1980s (1360s SH), nursing research became more analytical and nurses began to analyze the contributing factors in addition to their description and conduct epidemiological studies. The research findings were often presented in medical congresses, however few scientific congresses were held by nursing and midwifery schools in this decade which had significant role in current status of nursing research.

  Background & Aim: The major problem with mechanically ventilated patients receiving enteral nutrition hospitalized in the intensive care units is delayed gastric emptying. Acupressure can increase gastric motility. This study aimed to determine the effect of acupressure on the amount of gastric emptying in mechanically ventilated patients hospitalized in the intensive care units .

  Methods & Materials: In this clinical trial, 78 mechanically ventilated patients were recruited using convenience sampling method and were randomly divided into two control and experimental groups. Acupressure was applied on the Neiguan point for four days in the experimental group. The control group patients received no intervention. Gastric residual volume was measured in the admission time and before the gavages. The mean gastric residual volume of the admission time and the 1-4 days after the admission were compared in the two groups. Data were analyzed using the independent t-test, Chi-squared test, covariance analysis and repeated measured tests in the SPSS-16. 

  Results: The results revealed that there were no differences between the two groups in the admission time and the first day (P>0.05). There were statistically significant differences between the two groups in the admission time and 2-4 days after the admission (P<0.05). The difference of mean scores of gastric residual volume were significantly different between the two groups during the four days of post intervention constantly (Repeated measured ANOVA P=0.011) .

  Conclusion: The acupressure increased the gastric emptying in mechanically ventilated patients hospitalized in the intensive care units. Since the acupressure wristband was an easy to use, non-expensive, available procedure, it can be used to improve gastric emptying and prevent delayed gastric emptying complications .

Background & Aim: Although mechanical ventilation is a life-saving intervention for many infants with respiratory distress syndrome, it carries potential complications. One of these complications is prolonged duration of mechanical ventilation. More than 15 days of mechanical ventilation is associated with increased risk of cerebral palsy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among extremely low birth weight infants. The current study aimed to determine the relationships between the length of mechanical ventilation and its related factors in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome.

Methods & Materials: In this analytical study, a convenience sample of 60 premature infants of 33 weeks’ gestation or less with respiratory distress syndrome was recruited from three hospitals (Mahdieh, Mofid, and Imam Hossein) affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2014-2015. Then, factors related to the length of mechanical ventilation such as sex, type of birth, birth weight, gestational age, Apgar score at the first minute, Apgar score at the fifth minute were assessed. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, independent t-test, and multiple regression analysis on SPSS software v.20.

Results: The mean gestational age was 30.62±1.8 weeks and the mean weight of infants was 1510.33±390.940 grams. The mean length of mechanical ventilation was 3.58±2.97 days. There  were not any correlations between sex, type of birth and the length of mechanical ventilation (P>0.05). Gestational age and weight were significantly correlated to the length of mechanical ventilation (P<0.001). But in adjusted analysis using multiple regression, only gestational age remained a significant factor related to the length of mechanical ventilation (P<0.05).

Conclusion: The results of the current study revealed that among the studied factors, only gestational age was a factor affecting the length of mechanical ventilation.