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  Background & Objectives: Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders in the world. It causes disruption in daily activities and increases the risk of major depression. Hence, clinically the appropriate and persistent treatment of insomnia is very important. Using of hypnotic drugs such as benzodiazepines is the common treatment for insomnia but they show several side effects and it seems that new medications should be used for treatment of sleep disorders. The aim of this study was comparison between the effects of electromagnetic therapy and conventional drug usage in the treatment of insomnia.

  Methods: In a blind randomized clinical trial study, 60 people referred to the private office of the psychiatrist and experienced more than 3 months extended primary insomnia were selected. They were diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria and had no other underlying problems. The subjects were divided in two groups: 30 people in each and treated electromagnetically or with Alprazolam for 3 weeks. Before treatment, immediately and one month after treatment, quality of sleep and severity of the insomnia were evaluated by using the standard questionnaires and finally, the results were analyzed statistically.

  Results : In this study, 60 individuals participated from whom 28 were male (46.7%) and 32 patients were female (53.3%).The mean age was 37.3 years old in a range of 17- 65. The mean point of each questionnaire, before and immediately after treatment significantly didn't show any difference but one month after treatment, there was a significant difference in both groups.

  Conclusion : To treat insomnia, electromagnetic therapy appears to be used as a replacement for sedative medicines. It also has more stability in comparison with other sedative medicines and no side effects have been reported yet.

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  Background & Objective: Advances in public health and control of infectious diseases have led to increased number of elderly people in the world including Iran. Thus serious concerns exist in terms of age-related diseases . Consequently, Iran’s ministry of health has chosen “ageing and health” as the theme for 2012 along with WHO. Psychological disorders�are among the most prevalent diseases in elderly people. Recent studies suggest a two-way relationship between some psychological disorders and insomnia. Also there is evidence implying magnesium role in improvement of aforementioned disorders. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dietary magnesium supplementation on mental health in insomniac elderly subjects.

  Methods: A double-blind randomized clinical trial was conducted on 46 insomniac elderly subjects randomly allocated into the magnesium or the placebo group, receiving daily for 8 weeks either 500 mg magnesium or a placebo, respectively. SCL-90-R and ISI questionnaires were conducted at baseline and at the end of the intervention period. Serum magnesium and cortisol levels were also determined in the patients. In addition, information was obtained on anthropometric confounding factors and daily intake of magnesium, calcium, potassium and caffeine using 24-hr dietary recall questionnaire for 3 days. The N4 and SPSS19 were used for data analysis.

  Results: No significant differences were observed in assessed variables between the two groups at baseline. As compared to the placebo group, in the experimental group, dietary magnesium supplementation brought about statistically significant decreases in GSI, PST, PSDI, ISI scores as well as somatization , anxiety, psychoticism , and depression symptoms and serum cortisol concentration. While the obsessive-compulsive , interpersonal sensitivity, hostility , phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation scores and serum magnesium concentration were not different between the experimental and the placebo groups.

  Conclusion: In this study dietary magnesium supplementation resulted in improvements in insomnia severity index and some indices of mental health.

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Background & objectives: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common diseases in the elderly. Elderly people with this disease have many problems, as sleep disorders, that can cause many complications such as falls, depression, memory disorders, irritability, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and dementia. The aim of this study was to determine the severity of insomnia in elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study that was performed on 170 elderly people with COPD referred to Hazrat Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran. The research instruments were short form of cognitive test and demographic characteristics, insomnia severity questionnaire. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software (V.16), using Pearson and Spearman correlation test, one-way ANOVA, independent t-test, logistic regression analysis and Tukey post hoc analysis.
Results: The mean and standard deviation of insomnia in the elderly were found to be 14.4±5.6 which indicated moderate insomnia. Factors such as gender, marital status, patient's occupation, history of sleep disorders, and history of hypnotic drugs use and duration of COPD were the variables that were significantly associated with patients' insomnia. (p<0.001)
Conclusion: Insomnia disorder in the elderly will have adverse consequences. Hence the control of effective factors in these patients can improve their health and quality of life.