Objective: This study evaluated the theory of mind (ToM) in adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder ‎‎(BD) during their euthymic period compared to a typically developing (TD) group.‎
Method: The BD group consisted of thirty 11-18 year old inpatients in euthymic phase. The TD ‎group included 30 age, gender, and IQ matched volunteer students. To assess the diagnosis and ‎comorbid disorders, we performed the semi-structured interview of the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders ‎and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) for the BD adolescents. To ‎evaluate the severity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and mania, Conner's ‎Parent Rating Scale-Revised version (CPRS-R), and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) were ‎used, respectively. Ravens Progressive Matrices was conducted to evaluate intellectual ability in ‎the both groups. Happe Strange Stories test was performed to assess ToM in the participants. Data were ‎analyzed using the independent t-test, analysis of covariance, and Pearson Correlation analysis.‎
Results: The two groups did not show any differences in comprehending the stories; however, the BD ‎group’s mentalizing scores were significantly weaker than the TD group (p<0.05).‎‎
Conclusion: The ToM impairments in adolescents with BD may be explained as a trait marker which may lead ‎to continuation of social problems even during remission‏.‏

Objective: Generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common anxiety disorders in the general ‎population. Several studies suggest that anxiety sensitivity is a vulnerability factor in generalized ‎anxiety severity. However, some other studies suggest that negative repetitive thinking and ‎experiential avoidance as response factors can explain this relationship. Therefore, this study ‎aimed to investigate the mediating role of experiential avoidance and negative repetitive thinking ‎in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and generalized anxiety severity.‎
Method: This was a cross-sectional and correlational study. A sample of 475 university students was ‎selected through stratified sampling method. The participants completed Anxiety Sensitivity ‎Inventory-3, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II, Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire, and ‎Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation, multiple ‎regression analysis and path analysis.‎
Results: The results revealed a positive relationship between anxiety sensitivity, particularly cognitive ‎anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, repetitive thinking and generalized anxiety severity. In ‎addition, findings showed that repetitive thinking, but not experiential avoidance, fully mediated ‎the relationship between cognitive anxiety sensitivity and generalized anxiety severity. α Level ‎was p<0.005.‎
Conclusion: Consistent with the trans-diagnostic hypothesis, anxiety sensitivity predicts generalized anxiety‏ ‏severity, but its effect is due to the generating repetitive negative thought.‎

Objective: Although the etiology of schizophrenia is unknown, it has a significant genetic component. ‎A number of studies have indicated that neuregulin-1 (NRG1) gene may play a role in the ‎pathogenesis of schizophrenia. In this study, we examined whether the rs2439272 of NRG1 ‎is associated with schizophrenia and its negative symptoms in an Iranian population.‎
Method: Rs2439272 was genotyped in 469 participants including 276 unrelated patients with schizophrenia and 193 healthy controls. The association of genetic risk with PANSS, and negative ‎symptoms was examined in the total, male and female samples. COCAPHASE and ‎CLUMP22 programs were used to compare the allele and genotype frequencies, and ‎general linear regression was used to analyze the quantitative dependent variables by the ‎selected variant.‎
Results: In this study, it was revealed that the G allele of rs2439272 might be an allele with the ‎increased risk of developing schizophrenia, especially in the male participants. In addition, ‎significant differences were found between the G allele and GG genotype frequencies and ‎PANSS, and negative symptoms in the total and male participants.‎
Conclusion: Our results supported the association between rs2439272 in NRG1 gene and risk of ‎schizophrenia and its negative symptoms in an Iranian population.

Objective: This study aimed to provide a normative study documenting how 114 five-seven year-old non-‎patient Iranian children respond to the Rorschach test. We compared this especial sample to ‎international normative reference values for the Comprehensive System (CS).‎
Method: One hundred fourteen 5- 7- year-old non-patient Iranian children were recruited from public ‎schools. Using five child and adolescent samples from five countries, we compared Iranian ‎Normative Reference Data- based on reference means and standard deviations for each sample.‎
Results: Findings revealed that how the scores in each sample were distributed and how the samples were ‎compared across variables in eight Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) clusters. We reported ‎all descriptive statistics such as reference mean and standard deviation for all variables.‎
Conclusion: Iranian clinicians could rely on country specific or “local norms” when assessing children. We ‎discourage Iranian clinicians to use many CS scores to make nomothetic, score-based inferences ‎about psychopathology in children and adolescents.‎

Objective: Mindfulness skills are assumed to be related with emotions. Deficits in emotion ‎regulation could lead to development and persistence of mood disorders. Dysthymia and double ‎depression are two chronic types of depression. This chronicity can be attributed to the one’s ‎inability to regulate his/ her mood. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of mindfulness-‎based cognitive therapy (MBCT), which is one of the proposed methods for emotion regulation, ‎on depression and the ability of emotion regulation of patients with dysthymia.‎
Method: This clinical trial was conducted on 50 dysthymic and double ‎depressed patients. They were selected through convenience sampling and assigned into ‎intervention and control groups. The control group received only medication, while the MBCT ‎group participated in an eight- session program once a week with each session lasting for two to ‎two and half hours in addition to receiving medication. All the participants filled out Beck ‎Depression Inventory II and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale before and after the ‎program. Data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software (Version 16) and univariate ‎covariance statistical method.‎
Results: While there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups with ‎respect to the demographic characteristics, we observed a statistically significant improvement in ‎the defined variables in post-test of the MBCT group compared to the case group.‎
Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that combining MBCT and pharmacotherapy ‎could cause significant improvement in depression symptoms and increase the patient’s ability to ‎regulate emotion compared to pharmacotherapy alone‎.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify prognosis factors associated with recurrence in patients ‎with bipolar disorder.‎‎
Method: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in Hamadan Province, the west of Iran. All ‎patients (n = 400) with bipolar disorder who were hospitalized for the second time or more ‎during April 2008 to September 2014 were included in this study. Ordinal logistic regression ‎analysis was employed to determine the effective factors in each recurrence, and odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained.‎
Results: The mean (SD) age of the participants at the entrance to the study was 34.62 (11.68) years. ‎There was an association between recurrence and type of bipolar disorder (P = 0.033). The ‎OR of recurrence was 0.28 (95% CI: 0.09, 0.90) for bipolar disorder II; 0.35 (95% CI: 0.13, ‎‎0.92) for the patients‎‏ ‏with college education; 0.39 (95% CI: 0.25, 0.60) for employed ‎patients; 0.55 (95% CI: 0.35, 0.87) for patients who received both drugs and ‎electroconvulsive therapy, and 1.89 (95% CI: 1.23, 2.92) for patients who stopped using ‎drugs. In addition, a non-significant association was found between recurrence and age, sex, ‎marital status, place of residence, season, mood classification and family history of mood ‎disorder.‎
Conclusion: Type of bipolar disorder and cessation of medication were the leading causes of an increase in ‎the relapse of the disease. Furthermore, patients who received both drugs and ‎electroconvulsive therapy had a fewer risk of recurrence.‎

Objective: Suicide attempt may follow a process right from the inception of the first information about ‎suicide until the act itself. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between ‎perception of suicide prevention with the process of suicide attempt and demographic ‎variables following a suicidal attempt.‎
Method: In this hospital based cross-sectional study, 168 consecutive admitted participants with a ‎suicide attempt were screened, and 109 who met the study criteria were recruited to ‎participate in this study before discharge. They were assessed using the socio-demographic ‎and clinical proforma designed for this study as well as by the Pierce Suicide Intent Scale. To ‎assess the process of suicide attempt and perception of suicide prevention, a 17- item ‎questionnaire was developed and used after rigorous literature search. The Cronbach’s ‎alpha coefficient value of this questionnaire found to be 0.84 in the reliability analysis.‎
Results: Media was the first source of information, and the majority had short duration of ‎preoccupation and interval between making the decision and the actual attempt and the ‎control of emotion during the attempt. A significant positive correlation was observed ‎between the source of the first information and age (p<01), reason for the method used and ‎economic status (p<01), duration since the first information and family history of suicide (p<01). Psychiatric diagnosis had a statistically significant association with the method used (p<01), duration of preoccupation (p<01), preparedness (p<01) and emotional state during ‎the attempt (p<01). A statistically significant negative correlation was found between the ‎source of the first information and education (p<01), any psychiatric diagnosis and duration ‎since the first death wish (p<01). On the score of perception about suicide prevention, a ‎significant group difference was observed for marital status, occupation, medical diagnosis, ‎opinion about an attempt, duration since the decision to attempt, and emotional control ‎during the attempt.‎
Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that perception of suicide prevention may vary ‎with the process of suicide attempts and demographic characteristics.‎

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the current factors affecting the choice of ‎psychiatry as a specialty and to detect the main factors in their choice.‎
Method: This descriptive study included 75 first year psychiatry residents in the academic year of ‎‎2014/2015. A Likert-type anonymous questionnaire consisting of academic and ‎demographic data with 43 questions, which evaluated the reason for choosing ‎psychiatry as a specialty, was given to the residents.‎
Results: The participants had a positive opinion about 28 items of the questionnaire, meaning that ‎these items had a positive effect in choosing psychiatry as a specialty (questions with P ‎value less than 0.05 and a positive mean). More than 80% of the residents had a positive ‎opinion about six items of the questionnaire (amount of intellectual challenge, variety of ‎knowledge fields relevant to psychiatry, emphasis on the patient as a whole person, the ‎importance of treating mental illnesses in the future, work pressure and stress of the ‎field during residency and coordinating with the person's life style). The participants ‎had a negative opinion about two items of the questionnaire (questions with a P value ‎less than 0.05 and a negative mean). They included experiencing mental illness ‎personally through relatives or close friends as well as the income in psychiatry. ‎Moreover, 36% of the residents with a more definite opinion mentioned that they chose ‎psychiatry as a specialty because of the limitations in residency exam.‎
Conclusion: Assistants had a positive opinion about most of the questions and this positive attitude ‎seemed to be an important factor in their specialty choice. However, attending to the ‎preventing factors may increase the selection of psychiatry as a specialty.‎

Objective: Because of functional impairment caused by generalized anxiety disorder and due to cognitive side ‎effects of many anti-anxiety agents, in this study we aimed to evaluate the influence of Passion ‎flower standardized extract on reaction time in patients with generalized anxiety disorder.‎
Method: Thirty patients aged 18 to 50 years of age, who were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and ‎fulfilled the study criteria, entered this double-blind placebo-controlled study. Reaction time was ‎measured at baseline and after one month of treatment using computerized software. Correct ‎responses, omission and substitution errors and the mean time of correct responses (reaction time) in ‎both visual and auditory tests were collected. The analysis was performed between the two groups ‎and within each group utilizing SPSS PASW- statics, Version 18. P-value less than 0.05 was ‎considered statistically significant.‎
Results: All the participants were initiated on Sertraline 50 mg/day, and the dosage was increased to 100 ‎mg / day after two weeks. Fourteen patients received Pasipy (Passion Flower) 15 drops three times ‎daily and 16 received placebo concurrently. Inter-group comparison proved no significant difference ‎in any of the test items between assortments while a significant decline was observed in auditory ‎omission errors in passion flower group after on month of treatment using intra-group analysis.‎‎
Conclusion: This study noted that passion flower might be suitable as an add-on in the treatment of generalized ‎anxiety disorder with low side effects. Further studies with longer duration are recommended to ‎confirm the results of this study.‎

Objective: One of the most important goals of marriage is the will to attain marital satisfaction. Marital ‎satisfaction is of prime importance and has the highest effect on the stability and failure of the ‎marriage. This study aimed to investigate marital satisfaction in the women who referred to ‎Gorgan Health centers.‎
Method: This was a descriptive-analytical study conducted in Gorgan. Two hundred seventy married ‎women who referred to health centers were selected using multi stage sampling method. ‎Data were collected using a reliable and valid questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS 18.‎
Results: The mean age of the participants was 33.39 ± 9.25 years. Marital satisfaction was in semi-desirable and desirable level in 66.3% and 33.7% of the participants, respectively. A significant ‎relationship was found between marital satisfaction and educational level of the participants (P<0.0001 χ² = 32.09), educational level of the husband (P = 0.002 χ² = 19.44), and occupation ‎of the husband (P<0.0001 χ² = 19.17.‎
Conclusion: Marital satisfaction of the participants was in desirable level. We recommend offering an ‎appropriate intervention to promote marital satisfaction particularly based on the mentioned ‎variables.