The efficacy of Transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavior therapy on reducing symptoms severity of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with co-occurring anxiety and mood disorders

AbstractBackground: The aim of this study was to elucidate efficacy of transdiagnostic cognitive behavior therapy based on Unified Protocol (UP) for reducing symptoms severity of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) with co-occurring anxiety and unipolar mood disorders.Methods: From the thirty patients who participated to treatment, twenty four participants were randomly assigned to receive either immediate or delayed treatment. All participants were assessed using both clinician-rated and self-report measures. The immediate or intervention group were received 20 sessions taking one hour TCBT intervention based on UP but delayed group did not receive any intervention. After gathering the data from two groups, the UP was implemented for delayed or control group. Three regular assessment administrated that consisted of pretest, posttest, and a month follow-up (FU). Results: The UP afforded a very strong effect on diagnostic severity, obsessive compulsive frequency of symptoms, dimensions and total functioning for principal diagnoses from pretreatment to FU. Effect size statistics for assessing treatment gains showed large effects (of 1.49 to 2.64) for heterogonous comorbid disorders that was retained on follow-up. The differences in the proportion of individual achieving responders and high end-state function (HESF) between comorbid diagnoses at post treatment and FU were not statistically significant.Conclusion: Results from this study provide additional evidence for the efficacy of the UP in the treatment of OCD with co-occurring anxiety and unipolar depressive disorders, and provide additional support for a transdiagnostic approach to the treatment of emotional disorders.

The Efficacy of Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): symptom reduction and improving of emotion regulation and mindfulness skills

Background: According to Emotion Dysregulation Model (EMD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) symptoms may be maintained by emotional hyperarousal, experience of intense emotion, poorer understanding of emotions, negative attitudes about emotions, and maladaptive emotion regulation and management. based on the EMD, Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) is a mechanism-targeted intervention that cultivating emotion regulation skills. Materials and Methods: Four men with generalized anxiety disorder were selected from Counseling Center of University of Tehran and Talieh Mehr clinic. Anxiety and Related Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (ADIS-IV) were used to diagnosis GAD and other disorders. Subjects were selected using purposeful sampling, multiple baseline experimental single case study was used as the method of the present study. The treatment program was carried out for 14 weekly sessions (14-session version), with a follow-up period of 2 months subsequent to treatment termination. Subjects completed the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7), The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) in the baseline, during treatment, post-treatment and follow-up period. Results: The patients demonstrated distinct improvements in symptom severity (i.e., worry, anxiety and GAD cretria in GAD-7), and in model-related outcomes including, mindful attending/acceptance, and cognitive reappraisal. Patients maintained gains across the two month follow-up period. In addition to, ERT was very well tolerated by patients and all of patients completed sessions. Conclusion: Results of present study provide additional evidence for the efficacy of the ERT in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and additional support for the role of emotion dysregulation in the onset, maintenance, and treatment GAD

Comparing the Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Therapy with Emotion Regulation Treatment on Quality of Life and Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Objective: Irritable bowel syndrome is a common gastrointestinal disorder. The perception of stress and GI-specific anxiety play a key role in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The present study aims at comparing the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy with emotion regulation on the quality of life and severity in patients IBS. Method: This randomized clinical trial was conducted in 3 phases: pretest, posttest, and follow-up. Follow-up was performed 2 months after the last intervention. The study population consisted of 24 IBS patients who were randomly selected according to Rome-IV Criteria and were then divided into 3 eight-member groups: (1) mindfulness-based stress reduction, (2) emotion regulation, and (3) control group. IBS-QOL34 and IBS-SSS were administered as assessment tools to all the 3 groups. The experimental groups were subjected to MBSR and ER psychotherapy, while the control group received no psychological intervention. After the 2-month follow-up, the 3 groups were evaluated again. Results: The results revealed that MBSR improved the quality of life of IBS patients and dicreased severity of their condition. The findings of between and within subjects design revealed that the difference between MBSR and control groups was significant in IBS at follow-up (p = 0.01). Conclusion: MBSR could be considered as a new, effective, and stable method in psychotherapy, in irritable bowel syndrome

Comparing Narrative Microstructure between Bilingual Balochi-Persian and Monolingual Persian Preschoolers

Background: To date, with rapid increase of bilingual children, more attention about different patterns of the bilingual children narratives is needed. The aim of this study was to compare microstructure level of narratives generated by typical developing kindergarten children who were bilingual in Persian and Balochi with monolingual Persian speakers. Method: Thirty Persian-speaking monolingual and thirteen available bilingual children (aged 48 months old) participated in this study. Children’s story telling was audio-recorded and analyzed using the Persian-NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol) guidelines. Results: All of the NAP indicators include of group structure, phrase structure, modifiers, noun and verbs didn’t show significant difference between monolingual and bilingual children (0.06≤p≤0.5). Conclusion: We didn’t find different performance in the five NAP indicators between bilingual and monolingual children. It may be suggested that the different patterns of creating phrases and sentences in two languages don’t affect the grammatical use of them in second language

Comparing Narrative Microstructures between Bilingual BalochiPersian Preschoolers and Monolingual Persian Preschoolers

Background: With the rapid increase of bilingual children, more attention is needed on different patterns of their narratives. The aim of this study was to compare levels of narrative microstructures generated by typical developing kindergarten children who were bilingual in Persian and Balochi with their monolingual Persian-speaking counterparts. Methods: A total number of 30 Persian-speaking monolingual children and 13 available bilingual children (aged 48 months old) participated in this study. Their storytelling was audio-recorded and analyzed using Persian-NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol) guidelines. Results: None of the NAP indicators (including group structure, phrase structure, modifiers, noun, and verbs) showed any significant difference between monolingual and bilingual children (0.06≤P≤0.5). Conclusion: We did not find different performances in the five NAP indicators between bilingual and monolingual children. It may be suggested that different patterns of creating phrases and sentences in the two languages do not affect grammatical use in the second language

Prevalence of Helicobacter felis and Helicobacter heilmannii and Co-infection With Helicobacter pylori in Gastric Biopsy Specimens in Endoscopy Ward of Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Hamadan City, Iran

Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has various strains associated with human infections. H. pylori, H. heilmannii, and H. felis are the most common strains in humans. H. pylori is associated with several human diseases such as chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, mucous membrane lymphoma, and gastric adenocarcinoma. This study aimed to determine the prevalence rates of H. felis and H. heilmannii and the effect of co-infection with H. pylori in gastric biopsy specimens of patients. Methods: Totally, 80 gastric biopsy specimens were taken by a physician from the patients referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Hamadan City, Iran. PCR test was used to confirm the presence of H. pylori in samples that had positive rapid urease tests. Moreover, the ureB gene and ureA and ureB genes were used for H. heilmannii and H. felis, respectively.Results: Of the study patients, 61.5% were females, and 38.5% were males with a mean age of 37.8 years. Of 80 biopsies, 50% were H. pylori-positive, 53.8% were H. heilmannii-positive, but no H. felis was identified in any sample. Results indicate that smoking, having a history of gastrointestinal diseases, and taking certain medications can be risk factors for H. pylori. Conclusion: Any agent contributing to gastric mucosal damage can enhance the susceptibility to bacterial contamination. Overall, the results indicate a low probability of interactions between H. pylori, H. heilmannii, and H. felis

Evaluation of the educational environments of undergraduate medicine and pharmacy programmes at the University of Zambia

Background:A Based on the World Health Organization’s reporting, over 1.25 million people die annually in traffic accidents worldwide. Traffic accidents are the ninth main cause of death worldwide, with an average age range of victims of 15 to 29. Broadly speaking, 90% of traffic accidents happen in the lowand middle-income countries that comprise 82% of the global population, and these countries account for half of the world’s vehicles. One of the goals of the National Road Traffic Knowledge Development Trustee is to plan and implement training courses (content design, design and implementation and evaluation) for target groups. To achieve this goal and due to the lack of academic programs on traffic safety in Iran, a single-credit course, “Safety and Traffic,” was developed to be run as a compulsory academic course in all universities across the country. Methods: This course was administered as a national pilot study in four phases and in 17 medical universities across the country. All experts and national authorities in the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education were requested to provide feedback. Afterwards, the results and comments were forwarded to the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution for further investigation. Upon approval of the Council, the course will be implemented in all universities across the country. Results: Results from the pre-test showed that the level of students’ knowledge was low before attending the training courses. Surveys also revealed that the two items of “pedestrian safety” and “first aids in RTCs” were the most useful and applicable subjects. The percentage of wrong answers ranged from 61 to 98%. Conclusion: Considering the importance of traffic accidents and people’s role in traffic-related issues, it seems that it is necessary to provide university courses for traffic safety education