Play is an effective instrument in hand for children to present their needs, feeling, and thinking. This article describes ten play therapy techniques for clinical job and clarifies the therapeutic values of the Play. Also this article tries to explain the main characters of these techniques: aim, materials, implementation method, and target group. The process of the play therapy in five stages as follows: diagnosis and clinical observation, preferring the play therapy, planning for therapy, play therapy, and evaluation is the other part of the article. The feeling words game, balloons of anger, chair game, slow motion game are a sample of the techniques those were defined here. The article clarifies the play as an instrument therapeutically.

Background and purpose: Progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain is the main mechanism of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although potassium channels affect neural activity and death in this area, little research has investigated the effect of potassium channel blockers, such as 4-aminopyridine in the pretreatment of PD.Methods: Fifty-six healthy male Wistar rats were selected for this study. They were divided into seven groups according to receiving saline or 4-aminopyridine, receiving a low or high dose of 4-aminopyridine and receiving 4-aminopyridine for short or long periods. Apomorphine-induced rotational test, elevated body swing test and rotarod test were done to examine behavioral performances.Results: 4-aminopyridine could not completely block behavioral disturbances induced by MPTP, however, it decreased them in all behavioral tests. Long administration of 4-aminopyridine was more effective than short administration in lowering behavioral disturbances. Although high dose of 4-aminopyridine was more effective than low dose in initial trials of each behavioral test, there was no difference between them in the last trial.Conclusion: Long administration of low dose of 4-aminopyridine is the best way to lessen behavioral disturbances induce by MPTP and also avoiding side effects of high dose of 4-aminopyridine.

Introduction: Children with hemophilia and children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, as chronic illness, experience a significant stress from early childhood and are prone to various psychological problems because of long-term treatment and complications and deprivations. Methods: This is a causal-comparative study on 50 children with hemophilia and 50 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia participated from a children hospital (Mofid) in Tehran. All participants were the 12-7 years old. By convenience sampling, the participants were chosen. In this study, Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) was used to assess behavioral and emotional disturbances, which was completed by parents of these children. Results: The results of this study showed that children with hemophilia in the variables of activities, academic performance and overall competence, and children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the variables of activities and overall competence scored lower than healthy children. The social performance of these two groups of children did not show any significant difference with healthy children and there was no significant difference in the academic performance of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia with healthy children. The problems of internalization and extinction, general behavioral and emotional problems of children with hemophilia and children with acute leukemia were more than healthy children. Also, children with Hemophilia showed more behavioral problems than children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Conclusions: The results indicate that the factors associated with the disease (such as anemia and bleeding), treatment (side effects of drugs) and social exclusion in children with hemophilia and children with acute leukemia caused some psychological problems.

Aim and Background: The main purpose of this study was to review the effectiveness of applied behavioral analysis (ABA) approach on symptoms of autistic children during a five-year period.Methods and Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 20 autistic children (3-7 years of age) were intervened by ABA approach at Isfahan Center of Autism for a period of five years (2007-12). Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS) was filled out at baseline and at the end of the five-year period. Besides, the subjects were assessed by a checklist including cognitive comprehension, mathematical and verbal skills, and self-help at the beginning of the study and at the end of each year. After five years, all collected data was analyzed with SPSS19.Findings: Pretest and the posttest values of stereotypic behaviors, communication problems, social interactions, and GARS total scores were significantly different (P<0.001). Furthermore, significant improvements in cognitive comprehension, mathematical and verbal skills, and self-help were observed after each year and at the end of the five-year period (P<0.001).Conclusions: On the whole, it can be concluded that ABA-based interventions can effectively reduce symptoms of autism and increase skills.

Introduction: There are some doubts about therapeutic effects of olanzapine and risperidone two antipsychotic drugs on behavioral disturbances in patients with Alzheimer's disease and concerns about safety have emerged. We assessed the effectiveness of these two atypical antipsychotic drugs in outpatients with Alzheimer's disease. Methods and Materials: In this double-blind trial, 69 outpatients with Alzheimer's disease and psychosis, aggression, or agitation were randomly assigned to receive olanzapine (dose, 2.5- 7.5 mg per day) or risperidone (dose, 0.5-4.5 mg per day). Patients were followed for up to 10 weeks. The main outcomes were the scores of the Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGI) scale and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS).Results: There were no significant differences among treatments with regard to improvement in risperidone and olanzapine group on the CGI (3.2±4.3 vs. 3.5±5.8 & P Value=0.564) and BPRS scale (8.2±9.2.vs. 8.8±9.2 & P Value = 0.522) .Furthermore, although the number of patients who had left the study cause of side effects, was greater in risperidone group, sedation and headache are more common with olanzapine than risperidone.Conclusion: Both risperidone and olanzapine might be useful and reasonable treatment for patients who suffering from behavioral disturbances due to psychosis in Alzheimer disease.

Background: Sleep disturbances are very common among elderly population and mostly remain incurable. Practical, brief, and effective interventions are needed to promote sleep quality in older adults with moderate sleep disturbances. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a brief behavioral training program in ameliorating sleep quality in older adults suffering from moderate sleep disturbances. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 64 older adults with moderate sleep disturbances, as defined by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score ≥ 5. Participants were randomly allocated to either intervention (n = 32) or control (n = 32) group. Older adults in the intervention group received a brief behavioral-based sleep training program which was delivered in a single in-person session followed by four telephone sessions during 4 weeks. While their peers in the control group did not receive any intervention. The main outcome of the study was scores on the PSQI which was compared at pre-and post-intervention between both groups. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 19. 0. Results: At 4 weeks, PSQI scores decreased in older adults receiving intervention, as compared with the scores of participants to the control group (P < 0. 001). Subjects in the intervention group also showed significant improvements in sleep latency, subjective sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleep efficiency (P < 0. 05). Conclusion: Brief behavioral interventions may be promising and useful for older adult population with moderate problems, and can be considered an efficacious and non-invasive intervention approach to improve elderly’ s sleep quality.

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that is identified by progressive cognitive deficit and behavioral disturbances (BD) are the most common form of dementia. As the population is aging, patients with AD are becoming a serious burden for societies. In this study, current medication for cognitive deficit and behavioral disturbances are reviewed. Also the new treatment strategies for cognitive dysfunction and behavioral disturbances are surveyed.Methods: The method employed in this researh was a systematic bibliographic review, in which only the double-blind placebo-controlled studies or the clinically detailed enough open-labeled studies using validated scales were retained.Results: The efficacy of cholinesterase inhibitors (Tacrine, Rivastigmine, Donapezil and Galantamine) has been demonstrated in several double blind placebo controlled clinical trials. They have shown a mild efficacy in mild to moderate AD. Memantine, a NMDA antagonist is the only drug that has demonstrated mild efficacy in moderate to severe AD in controlled clinical trial. Clinical trials surveying the efficacy of active and passive immunization against B amyloid protoin has halted due to serious adverse events. Studies of inducing neurogenesis in brain of AD patients are preliminary. Antipsychotics have shown efficacy for controlling BD of AD patients but they are associated with adverse events. Except for carbamazepine, there is not enough evidence for other anticanvulsants to be effective for behavioral disturbances of AD patients. A controlled clinical trial and some open studies have shown the efficacy of citalopram for BD. Further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of other medications like trazadon, buspiron and beta blockers for BD.Conclusion: Cholinesterase inhibitors have demonstrated disappointing results. Memantine is only mildly effective for cognitive deficit. To date, no amyloid-modifying therapy has yet been successful in phase 3 clinical trials. Further studies are needed for more effective and safe cognitive enhancing agents. Antipsychotics, the usually employed medication for behavioral disturbances are associated with adverse events so looking for safer and effective medication in this regard is necessary.