Advances in Cognitive Sciences
Year:2003 | Volume:5 | Issue:3|Papers Count:17

Objective: To describe the characteristics of Iran’s mental health research articles that are published over a 30-year period. Method: The articles include those concerned with psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience that were published in the national as well as international scientific journals. These articles were drawn from a national database of published research in psychiatry, psychology as well as neuroscience (IranPsych). For this study, articles were limited to those published in a 30-year period of 1973-2002 (1352-1381 in Persian calendar).Results: Of a total of 3031 articles published in the 30-year period, 19.8% were published in the international journals. The publication trends showed a marked increase in number over item, especially in the last 5 years. Among research areas, psychology, clinical sciences, and the neurosciences constituted the largest proportions (52.8%, 31.6%, and 13.5%, respectively). The trend of research areas revealed an upward trajectory for the proportion of neuroscience research and a decline in the proportion of mental health service research. The topic of 38.6% of all articles was in the category of mental disorders, with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy researches constituting 14.5% and 5.7% of the articles, respectively. Among mental disorders, the largest proportions of the published research were about mood disorders, substance use related disorders, and anxiety disorders. The most commonly used research method was cross-sectional, with experimental designs comprising 15.9% and prospective research accounting for 1%. The preferred places for data collection included hospitals, schools and universities. In more than 90% of the articles there were no references to the funding sources and only 2.1% of the articles were carried out with international collaboration of the authors. Conclusion: The rising trend of mental health research publications shows the significant contribution of nation’s mental health researchers. The results of this study could provide an empirical basis for policy making and strategic planning in mental health research.

Objective: To determine the relationship between psychoticism, field dependence–independence and word association (as a measure for creativity or remote associations) in Isfahan University students. Method: Fifty male and 60 female students were randomly selected and Eysenck Psychoticism Questionnaire (EPQ), Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and Word Associations Test (WAT) were administered to them. It was hypothesized that there would be significant associations between all the three variables. Results: The results of analysis of variance showed that the relationship between psychoticism and word association was significant showing an inverse relation. However, the relation between field dependence-independence and word association was not significant. Also, there was a meaningful difference between the means of word association in male and female students. However, the differences between the means of male and female students in field dependence-independence and in psychoticism were not significant. Conclusion: Elucidation of the personality and cognitive characteristics of creative people is of utmos importance, and could help with appropriate educational planning for this group.

Objective: To assess the relation between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia with maintenance of attention in these patients. Method: Thirty-two patients with schizophrenia (15 acute and 17 chronic patients) and 32 normal individuals aged 19-51 years were selected. The two groups were matched on the basis of age, gender and education, and were assessed by the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). In order to study the multivariate correlation between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and CPT variables, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) were administered.Results: The results indicated that patients with schizophrenia had significantly poorer performance in comparison to normal individuals in all CPT variables (correct response, omission and commission). Regression analysis showed that the delusion component of positive symptoms, positively predicted correct response variable and negatively predicted the omission and commission variables. The affective flattening component of negative symptoms predicted correct response variable of CPT negatively and the omission and commission variables positively. Conclusion: These results show the deficit of maintenance of attention in patients with schizophrenia and support the validity of negative–positive syndrome discrimination in these patients.

Objective: There have been few studies on the prevalence of autistic–spectrum symptoms in adults. We sought to study the frequency of autistic-spectrum symptoms among master degree and Ph.D. students of medical universities in Tehran. Psychometric properties of the study instrument were also examined. Method: One thousand students were offered a Farsi version of Autism- Spectrum Questionnaire. The frequency of symptoms, demographic variables and impact of participants’ gender were assessed. The instrument was also examined for the internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. Results: A total of 943 subjects completed the questionnaires. One hundred and twenty subjects (12.7%) scored above 32. The mean scores were significantly higher for males compared to females. The translated version of the instrument proved to be good in terms of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Conclusion: Our study indicates that deficits in various aspects of social cognition seen in autism spectrum disorders are common phenomena. The findings may imply a continuum of autism spectrum symptoms and normality.

Objective: In the final days of the year 2003, the earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam, led to the death of more than 30000 of the 200000 inhabitants. The rate of opium abuse, which had been already high among the population in this city caused problems after the earthquake. The objectives of this rapid qualitative study were to assess drug abuse situation and the attitude of drug dependents and their families toward the effects of drug dependency on the injuries and losses imposed by the earthquake. Method: The study was carried out in the city of Bam, one of its nearby villages and 8 hospitals in Tehran and Kerman admitting earthquake victims. A group of 159 people were interviewed, including opioid dependents, their family members, people living in Bam, and service providers. Results: According to more than half of the opioid dependent interviewees, opioid dependency had decreased and according to one third it had increased the effects of injuries and losses due to the earthquake. Half of their relatives believed that opioid dependency had increased injuries and another half believed that it had no effect on their losses and injuries. Conclusion: Considering a great risk of worsening of drug abuse situation in Bam after the earthquake, and the existence of positive and even neutral attitudes toward drugs, it can be anticipated that drug abuse would begin or continue among the survivors. Therefore, there is a great need for interventions that affect peoples’ attitudes toward drugs to achieve prevention and control of substance abuse.

Objective: To determine the effects of music instruction on the enhancement of cognitive abilities of preschool children. Method: Thirty students of music classes at the age of 5 to 6 years at the beginning of the course of music were assigned to the experimental group. Another thirty kindergarten children with no music instruction, were enrolled as the control group. The experimental group participated in a 12 week, music curriculum. Results: Statistical analysis showed significant gains for participants receiving music instruction in general reasoning ability. Also they scored significantly higher than the “no music” group on the verbal reasoning and short-term memory subtests. The numerical and visual/abstract reasoning abilities did not differ for the two groups at the end of the course. Conclusion: These data support the findings on the usefulness of music instruction on similar skills enhancements in preschool children.

Objective: Cogntive deficits have received much attention over the past two decades. In this article, the role of cholinergic, dopaminergic, adrenergic, serotoninergic and gabaergic neurotransmitters in cognitive behavior is reviewed. Method: This is a review article.Results & Conclusion: The involvement of cholinegric system in memory and pathological states such as dementia, is a replicated finding. However, the function of this system cannot completely explain the cognitive processes of learning and memory. Several animal studies have explored the role of different neurotransmitter systems on learning and memory. Any decrease or increase in levels of the neurotransmitters or activation or blockade of relevant receptors may alter learning and memory. It seems that a network consisting of different neurotransmitter systems may be important for learning and memory processing.

Objective: To study the approach of theory of mind construct in developmental psychology. Method: This review article presents the definition of theory of mind and its origins, along with a description of the pertinent developmental theories. Moreover, the importance of representation and metarepresentation is elucidated and the related tasks, including false belief tasks and reality tasks are discussed. Finally, the reasons for the failure of 3-year old children in these tasks are explored. Results & Conclusion: It could be argued that developing children achieve two signiticant discoveries regarding the mind; First “what the mind is”, and second “How the mind functions”. These achievement is quite fundamental to an understanding of the social world.