Practice in Clinical Psychology
Year:2018 | Volume:6 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Objective: The main objective of this study was to investigate the explicit memory bias in the people with high BAS/BIS sensitivity in the different manipulated mood states.Methods: By using purposive sampling method, seventy-four participants (undergraduate students) were selected based on z-scores of 480 using the Carver and White’s BAS/BIS scale. They were distributed as: 24 with high BAS sensitivity, 25 with high BIS sensitivity and 25 as the control group. Data were gathered in the framework of quasi-experimental design. All the subjects were presented with emotional words for memorization. Then, the participants in each group were randomly assigned to either a sad or a happy mood induction prior to performing a recognition memory task. Reaction Time (RT), response bias (ß) and sensitivity (d’) for the emotional word recognition was calculated using the signal detection theory.Results: Reaction time for recognizing the negative words in the sad mood condition was shorter in the high BIS sensitivity group, relative to the high BAS sensitivity group and controls. No significant differences were observed for sensitivity (d’), neither between groups nor within the control. However, lower ß for negative words was observed in the high BIS sensitivity group only.Conclusion: Results indicated that individuals with high BIS sensitivity use more liberal strategy for the negative word recognition.

Objective: Dynamic psychotherapies are effective in treating anxiety disorders. However, little is known about their effectiveness in treating Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD). The present research aimed to examine the effectiveness of Brief Empathic Psychotherapy (BEP) and anxiety-regulating dynamic therapy or Affect Phobia Therapy (APT) in reducing depression and anxiety in a sample of Iranian university students with ASAD symptoms.Methods: In total, 30 subjects were randomly assigned to three equal groups [two experimental (BEP and APT) groups and one control group]. Questionnaires were administered in pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up sessions. BEP and APT were provided to the experimental groups in 12 sessions over 4 weeks. All participants provided written informed consent during the pre-treatment assessment.Results: The results indicated that the measures of Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales showed significant decreases in depression and anxiety in the experimental groups and BEP was more effective than APT in reducing depression, whereas APT showed more significant therapeutic effects than BEP on anxiety but not on depression.Conclusion: In summary, the results of the present research showed that psychodynamic psychotherapies are effective for treating anxiety disorders, especially ASAD, and have significant therapeutic effects on depression and anxiety.

Objective: The main aim of this study was to examine the cognitive emotion regulation strategies among prisoners with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and compare those with the normal population, by achieving the patterns of the implemented strategies between the BPD prisoners.Methods: Ninety prisoners with BPD and 92 non-clinical individuals participated in this study. A Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-II) was used to diagnosis of BPD, and the cognitive emotion regulation strategies were evaluated by the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). The data were analyzed by independent t test and correlation coefficient via SPSS-16 software.Results: Independent t-test and correlations analyses showed that cognitive emotion regulation strategies differed in BPD as compared to normal samples, and also showed that self-blame, catastrophization, other blames and rumination strategies exhibited the largest associations with BPD (rs=0.40, 0.38, 0.34 and 0.33, respectively).Conclusion: The findings showed that the cognitive emotion regulation strategies, especially maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, had significant relation with BPD symptoms. So, these maladaptive cognitive-emotional components may, therefore, play an essential role in the interventional strategies.

Objective: The present study aimed to examine and compare early maladaptive schemas and impulsivity between opioid abusers and non-abusers.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, early maladaptive schemas and impulsivity were compared between 60 individuals dependent on opioids who were sampled from five drug rehabilitation centers in Qazvin and 60 workers of the Qazvin Glass Factory who were not dependent on opioids. The Young Schema Questionnaire and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale were used to gather data; data were analyzed using one-way multivariate analysis of variance.Results: The results indicated higher levels of early maladaptive schemas (overvigilance, F=48.81, P<0.01; other-directedness, F=46.99, P<0.01; disconnection, F=44.09, P<0.01; impaired limits, F=25.62, P<0.01; and impaired autonomy, F=45.75, P<0.01) and impulsivity (F=58.41, P<0.01) in opioid abusers than in non-abusers.Conclusion: The presence of early maladaptive schemas may be an underlying factor in drug abuse tendency. On the other hand, because the prevalence of impulsivity among individuals dependent on opioids increases the likelihood of risk behaviors, including drug abuse, it seems necessary to design interventions aimed at improving impulsivity in such individuals, so that the strengthening of early maladaptive schemas could be prevented, and patients could be helped to change their schemas.

Objective: The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Young Mania Rating Scale.Methods: This cross-sectional study included 65 patients with bipolar I disorder in the manic phase and 145 healthy individuals. The patients were selected from the Razi Psychiatric Hospital and Taleghani Hospital, while the controls were selected from the general population of Tehran, using a purposive sampling method. Data were collected using the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders and the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) and analyzed using SPSS-23 and AMOS-24.Results: Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure for the YMRS. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.72 indicated the acceptable reliability of YMRS. The cut-off point, sensitivity, and specificity of the YMRS were found to be 12.5, 0.93, and 0.96, respectively.Conclusion: According to the study results, YMRS showed adequate psychometric properties in the Iranian population. Therefore, it can be considered as a valuable instrument in screening patients with bipolar disorder in the manic phase.

Objective: The present study aimed to compare the adolescents with internalizing problems and non-clinical adolescents with respect to their episodic future thinking (EFT) and working memory (WM). Furthermore, this study examined the role of WM in the prediction of EFT.Methods: This cross-sectional study encompassed a population of female students studying in third grade in Azarshahr Girl’s High Schools (East Azerbaijan Province) in the academic year of 2015-2016. Using multistage cluster sampling method, 40 adolescents with internalizing problems and 42 non-clinical adolescents were selected. The participants were asked to fill out the autobiographical and WM tasks and depression, anxiety, and stress scale. The study hypotheses were tested using multivariate analysis of variance test (MANOVA) and the multiple regression analysis by SPSS V.22 at P<0.05.Results: The results showed a significant difference between the two groups regarding WM and subscales of future specificity and future details (P<0.05). However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups regarding future fluency subscale (P<0.05). The current results also showed that working memory predicts EFT (b=-0.19; P<0.01).Conclusion: The EFT impairment and WM deficits are associated with internalizing problems. Thus, internalizing problems are associated with cognitive dysfunction.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between positive affect, negative affect, rumination and depression, and to explore the mediating role of rumination between positive and negative affect and depression.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 249 students, selected by convenience sampling method. All the participants completed positive and negative affect schedule, The Ruminative Response Scale and Beck depression inventory. Statistical analysis was done using the R 3.4.2 software.Results: Positive affect exhibited a significant negative relationship with rumination and depression. Also, there was a significant positive relationship between negative affect and rumination and depression. In addition, results showed that rumination partially mediated the relationship of positive and negative affect with depression.Conclusion: Considering the results, it can be concluded that rumination, directly and indirectly, mediates between positive and negative affect and depression, and can predict depression. Based on the increasing positive affect and reducing negative affect, therapeutic interventions can be provided that would decrease rumination, and thereby prevent or control depression.

Objective: Anticipatory grief is one of the most prominent psychological phenomena in mothers of children diagnosed with cancer. The aim of present study was to compare anticipatory grief of mothers of children diagnosed with cancer within the previous 1 month and those whose children were diagnosed 6-12 months earlier.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 70 mothers living in Mashhad; the children of 35 mothers were diagnosed with cancer within the previous 1 month, and the children of 35 mothers were diagnosed with cancer 6 to 12 months earlier. The instrument was Marwit and Meuser Caregiver Inventory: Childhood Cancer. For data analysis in addition to the procedures of descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation), inferential statistics (MANOVA) has been used.Results: The results of MANOVA revealed that there is a significant difference between the anticipatory grief of mothers of children diagnosed with cancer within the previous 1 month and those diagnosed 6-12 months earlier.Conclusion: Mothers of children recently diagnosed with cancer need to receive adequate support interventions.