God-oriente d spiritual psychotherapy (God-OSP) is an approach based on Islamic resources. Its basic assumption is the development of perceptual filed to the origin of being and resurrection, in addition to self and objective existence, activating the spiritual dimension, creating monotheistic attitude, providing the ground for the treatment and change of clients with psychological problems. The aim of this research is to study the effect of God-OSP on psychspiritual development (PSD) as a criteria of mental and spiritual health. The method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design in the clinical clients. The sample of this study included 20 clients being selected by voluntarily sampling. All of them had anxiety problems. All of them, in addition to clinical interviews by clinicians and receiving a diagnosis of anxiety, took the psychospiritual development questioner (PSDQ). Then, they entered the spiritual group therapy. After 45 weekly sessions of treatment, they were tested again, and the obtained data were analyzed. The findings showed that the clinical signs of low level of psychological development associated with psychological disorders were significantly reduced under the effect of God-OSP. In the other words, the signs of the egocentric faith and the transitional faith (ambivalence) decrease. On the other hand, the signs of Reconstructed Faith and Transcendent Faith significantly increase. But, at the dogmatic stage (second stage), the subjects did not change significantly. The findings of this study confirmed the two basic assumptions that spiritual therapy not only reduces the clinical signs associated with low levels of development but also provides the basis for transcendent human growth and development. This interactive effect increases the effectiveness of spiritual therapy and reduces the rate of recurrence based on clinical self-reports.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been on the rise all over the globe during the last two years and numerous cases are being reported positive on the Covid-19 diagnostic test daily. Patients dealing with this disease experience special emotions and psychological conditions. The aim of this study is to understand and describe the lived experience of these patients and their psychological and spiritual dimensions. This study was carried out through a qualitative method following a descriptive phenomenological approach. Data gathering was performed via 14 semi-structured interviews with COVID-19 patients from different cities in Iran. The selection of the sample was started with purposive sampling in 2020, and continued with the selection of more samples through the snowball sampling method till data saturation was achieved. Data analyses were performed by a qualitative method based on the Colizzi approach, leading to the extraction of 8 major classes and 24 themes. The classes of negative reactions to the diseases included fear and anxiety, hopelessness, anger and hatred, depersonalization and de-realization, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The post-disease classes of attitudinal and spiritual evolutions included increased spirituality, modified interpersonal relationships, and evolved self-concept. have achieved unique spiritual experiences and growth dimensions in their life upon dealing with the pandemic. This study can greatly help psychologists, medics, and medical managers to identify therapeutic approaches to treat anxiety and improve peace in the Covid-19 patients
The rate of personality disorders among drug users is estimated to be up to 50%. The co-occurrence of personality disorders among drug users can potentially lead to increased symptom severity, resistance to treatment, and increased risk of relapse. Using the systematic review method, in the present study, the efficacy of the dual focus schema therapy (DFST) in the treatment of substance use disorders with personality disorders was investigated. Using two databases, namely ScienceDirect and noormags, five eligible articles were reviewed that evaluated the efficacy of dual focus schema therapy (DFST) using case study and randomized controlled trial (RCT). The results showed that despite the positive and promising therapeutic results in the two case studies, three RCT studies showed the least useful results for the efficacy of the dual focus schema therapy (DFST) and that the dual focus schema therapy (DFST) is not a more effective option compared to the other forms of intervention, and more accurate evaluation requires further RCTs
Research findings have shown that personality characteristics play an important role in studying factors affecting anxiety among older adults. Despite the importance of this relationship, its underlying mechanism is still unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of sense of coherence in the relationship between neuroticism and self-esteem as personality characteristics and anxiety among older adults. A cross-sectional and correlational design was used for this study. The sample included 230 community-dwelling older adults (aged 60-97) from November to December 2019 in Tehran. Data were collected through the sociodemographic variables, the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory-20 (Pachana, 2007), the Sense of Coherence-13 scale (Antonovsky, 1993), the Big Five Inventory (Rammstedt & John, 2007) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). Based on a multi-stage sampling approach, data were collected and analyzed with the structural equation modeling. The older adults with high scores in neuroticism and low self-esteem showed a low level of sense of coherence. Low level of sense of coherence was associated with fewer symptoms of anxiety in older adults. Besides, sense of coherence partially mediated the relationship between personality characteristics (neuroticism and self-esteem) and anxiety in the elderly.
Regarding the mediating effect of sense of coherence in the relationship between personality characteristics (neuroticism and self-esteem) and anxiety, improving the level of sense of coherence may be an acceptable intervention to alleviate anxiety among older adults that suffer from neuroticism and low self-esteem.
Individuals with developmental dyslexia have difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition and spelling. Hemisphere alluding stimulation (HAS) is one of the neuropsychological techniques to stimulate cerebral hemispheres through the visual vessel, by word selection with various sizes and fonts. It increases the perceptual traits of the text and balances the reading speed by stimulating the right hemisphere. The aim was to investigate the efficacy of the implicit stimulation in visual hemisphere-specific according to the Bakker’s Balance Model for the reading and spelling skills in two students with the linguistic developmental dyslexia. In a single-subject design, two female students (mean age = 9.35 years) were selected through convenience sampling from the 3rd grade in the elementary school. They were diagnosed as having the linguistic developmental dyslexia, evaluated by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), who answered the Diagnostic Reading Disorder Test (DRDT) and the Writing Disorder Test (WDT). One student was considered a case subject and the other one a control subject. The case received implicit stimulation in visual hemisphere-specific for 16 sessions (twice a week), but the control subject did not. After the intervention and three months later, the subjects answered the DRDT and WDT again. The results of the visual analysis in combination with the non-overlap methods were used to calculate the effect size. The findings showed that the intervention increased the reading fluency (effect size = 90.74%), reading comprehension (effect size = 69.11%), reading speed (effect size = 200%), and spelling mistakes (effect size = 62.5%) of the case subject. The efficacy of the implicit stimulation in cerebral hemisphere was significant (p < 0.01), even three months later. We conclude that the implicit stimulation in visual hemisphere-specific is probably an effective method for improving the functioning of the reading and spelling skills in people with the linguistic developmental dyslexia.
The growing incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) suggests a surge in the number of patients undergoing dialysis and experiencing the problems associated with this treatment, one of which is low quality of life (QoL). The present study was conducted to compare QoL among patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD). This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 77 HD patients and 46 PD patients who were admitted to Imam Reza and Ghaem hospitals, Tehran, Iran, in 2018. QoL was assessed using the Short Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36). The resulting data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and ANOVA. Urinary tract infection and income level had a significant impact on QoL. In addition, QoL differed significantly between HD and PD patients, such that PD patients enjoyed a greater QoL score. Similarly, there was a significant difference between HD and PD patients in terms of general health, social functioning, energy and vitality, emotional health, as well as objective and mental aspects of quality of life. In fact, PD patients showed higher scores in all these domains. In addition, bodily pain was higher in HD patients than PD patients. Based on the findings, the overall QoL in PD patients was higher than that of HD patients. Thus, considering the advantages of PD, patients should be encouraged to choose this treatment method
Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), have been considered as an index of cognitive control deficiency. The aim of this study was to investigate whether enhancing cognitive control over emotional stimuli can decrease worry intrusions and severity of GAD symptoms. Based on the results of structured clinical interview for the DSM-5 (SCID), 45 students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) were who had GAD, chosen to participate in this study. Then they were assigned equally and randomly to three conditions of intervention, control and active cotrol groups; then they completed PSWQ, GAD-7, emotional stroop task and Go/No Go task as pre-test. The intervention group received 16 sessions of cognitive-affective control training using emotional stroop with trial-based feedback, also the active control group received the same amount of training sessions of emotional stroop with no feedback, and finally the control group was on a waiting list. After post-test assessments, results of ANCOVA showed that training sessions was effective on stroop performance, reduction in worry intrusions and GAD symptoms, while training in cognitive inhibition did not transfer to behavioral inhibition. Findings revealed that not only cognitive control plays a major role in worry and GAD symptoms, but also cognitive control training might be a promising path to decrease the severity of anxiety disorders. Training with emotional stimuli can enhance performance and using trial-based feedback can pave the way to get better clinical results
This study aimed to presenting the structural model of appearance management based on self-compassion with the mediating roles of external shame and body image dissatisfaction. The method of the present study was correlation analysis based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population consisted of female students residing in the dormitory of Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamedan. Among them, 400 individuals were selected randomly. They filled out Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Others As Shamer Scale (OAS), Body Image Concern Inventory (BICI), and Body Management Scale (BMS). Since 23 individuals did not fill out the questionnaires,377 questionnaires were examined through structural equation analysis. The results of structural equations indicated that all of direct and indirect relationships were significant; thus, all variables had pairwise relationships. On the other hand, external shame had a significant mediating role in the relationship between self-compassion and appearance management (z= -3.32, p< 0.01). In other words, self-compassion, due to the mediation of external shame, can predict appearance management. In addition, body image dissatisfaction had a significant mediating role in the relationship between self-compassion and appearance management (z= -4.03, p< 0.01). Hence, self-compassion, due to the mediation of body image dissatisfaction, could predict appearance management. Following the results, it can be concluded that self-compassion, with the mediating roles of external shame and body image dissatisfaction, can predict appearance management. These variables can be considered to modify body management.
