Najran University

About: Najran University is a education organization based out in Najrān, Saudi Arabia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Photocatalysis & Nanoparticle. The organization has 751 authors who have published 1809 publications receiving 28233 citations.

Depression and Anxiety in Patients With Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract: Objectives Depression and anxiety persist in cancer patients, creating an additional burden during treatment and making it more challenging in terms of management and control. Studies on the prevalence of depression and anxiety among cancer patients in the Middle East are limited and include many limitations such as their small sample sizes and restriction to a specific type of cancer in specific clinical settings. This study aimed to describe the prevalence and risk factors of depression and anxiety among cancer patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Materials and Methods A total of 1,011 patients (399 inpatients and 612 outpatients) formed the study sample. Patients' psychological status was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale. The prevalence rate of depressive and anxious symptomatology was estimated by dividing the number of patients who exceeded the borderline score: 10 or more for each subscale of the HADS scale, 15 or more for the GAD-7 scale, and 15 or more in the PHQ-9 by the total number of the patients. Risk factors were identified using logistic regression. Results The prevalence of depressive and anxious symptomatology among all patients was 23.4% and 19.1-19.9%, respectively. Depressive symptomatology was more prevalent across patients who were hospitalized (37.1%) compared with patients in the outpatient setting (14.5%) (p < 0.001). Similarly, anxious symptomatology was more prevalent in the inpatient setting (p < 0.001). In the inpatient setting, depressive symptomatology was more prevalent among patients with bladder cancer, while severe anxious symptomatology was more prevalent across patients with lung cancer. In the outpatient setting, depressive and anxious symptomatology was more prevalent among breast and prostate cancer patients, respectively. Despite that, around 42.7% and 24.8% of the patients, respectively, reported that they feel anxious and depressed, and only 15.5% of them were using medications to manage their conditions. Conclusion Our study findings demonstrated a higher prevalence of depressive and anxious symptomatology in the inpatient setting and advanced disease stages. In addition, the underutilization of antidepressant therapy was observed. There is a need to consider mental disorders as part of the treatment protocol for cancer patients. Enhanced clinical monitoring and treatment of depression and anxiety of cancer patients are required.

Visible light driven photocatalytic degradation of fluoroquinolone levofloxacin drug using Ag2O/TiO2 quantum dots: a mechanistic study and degradation pathway

Abstract: Herein, we report the facile synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic degradation application of Ag2O/TiO2 quantum dots (QDs). The QDs were synthesized via a pH-mediated precipitation method and characterized in detail in terms of their morphological, compositional, structural, optical and photocatalytic properties. Detailed morphological studies confirmed the large scale formation of spherical Ag2O/TiO2 quantum dots with typical sizes of 2–9 nm. Surface analysis by XPS clearly revealed the presence of Ag+ and Ti4+ in the form of Ag2O and TiO2. Optical properties exhibited an absorption shift towards the visible light region i.e. 506 nm, a wide shift compared to TiO2 QDs (i.e. 394 nm) in the synthesized Ag2O/TiO2 QDs. As a photocatalyst, the synthesized material exhibited remarkable photocatalytic performance towards the degradation of levofloxacin drug under visible light as compared to bare TiO2. The higher photocatalytic activity was due to electron–hole pair separation which improved the light absorption (λ > 400 nm) and availability of active sites. Interestingly, the major intermediates of levofloxacin degradation were identified and a probable pathway was also proposed. The observed results clearly revealed that simply prepared Ag2O/TiO2 QDs could be an excellent candidate for the photocatalytic degradation of various harmful chemicals.