Psychometric Properties and Clinical Utility of the Scale for Suicide Ideation with Inpatient Children

The purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties and clinical utility of the Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI) for children. The SSI was administered to 100 children who were hospitalized. Data were not used from 13 subjects due to the presence of a psychotic disorder or IQ less than 70, leaving 87 participants. The SSI was examined regarding its internal consistency, concurrent validity, construct validity, and factor structure when used with children. Based on the findings, the SSI appears to have adequate psychometric properties and can be used by clinicians and researchers examining children in an inpatient setting. Recommendations for clinicians are included to help make the SSI more functional in use for children.     

Sex differences in anger expression,depressed mood,and aggression in children and adolescents

The current study examined anger expression styles and their relationship to levels of depressed mood and aggressive behavior in male and female children and adolescents. Measures of anger, anger expression, and depressed mood were collected from both children and their parents. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that anger expression significantly predicted sadness but not aggression for females, after accounting for age and anger level. Among males, anger expression was important in predicting aggression but not sadness, whereas age and anger level best predicted sadness. These results suggest that age, anger level, and anger expression may be risk factors for depression and aggression among children and adolescents. Sex appears to be an important factor in anger expression styles and related depression and aggressive behavior.     

Mental health of medical students: a cross-sectional study in Tehran

Medical students are subject to stress from sources related to medical training in addition to personal problems, resulting in significant mental distress. This study evaluates the scope of the problem in Tehran medical schools and sheds light on some of its associations. Students (604) of medicine from four medical schools in the city of Tehran responded to the Persian version of 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) in conjunction with a data collection sheet asking about age, sex, marital status, current training level, living place, grade point average in previous semester, and perceptions of their financial status. Of 602 students, 40.7% had mental distress (45.7% of female and 36.7% of male students). Distress was associated with being a woman (female to male odds ratio: 1.55) and very poor financial status (OR: 18.0).     

Savant-like numerosity skills revealed in normal people by magnetic pulses

Oliver Sacks observed autistic twins who instantly guessed the exact number of matchsticks that had just fallen on the floor, saying in unison "111". To test the suggestion that normal individuals have the capacity for savant numerosity, we temporarily simulated the savant condition in normal people by inhibiting the left anterior temporal lobe of twelve participants with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). This site has been implicated in the savant condition. Ten participants improved their ability to accurately guess the number of discrete items immediately following rTMS and, of these, eight became worse at guessing as the effects of the pulses receded. The probability of as many as eight out of twelve people doing best just after rTMS and not after sham stimulation by chance alone is less than one in one thousand.     

Working Memory Capacity and Self-Repair Behavior in First and Second Language Oral Production

This study explores the relationship between working memory capacity and self-repair behavior in first (L1) and second language (L2) oral production. 40 Iranian intermediate EFL learners participated in this study. Their working memory capacity was measured via a version of listening span test. The participants performed two oral narrative tasks, one in their L2 (English) and one in their L1 (Farsi). Then, they were asked to listen to their own narrations and comment on the repairs they made in their speech. Self-repairs were analyzed and categorized taking into account the participants’ stimulated recall comments. Results of the analyses pointed to positive correlations between the participants’ working memory capacity and self-repairs in the L2 but not in the L1. Also, results revealed that whereas in the case of L1, the participants effectuated different-information and appropriacy repairs more than error-repairs, in the case of L2 more error-repairs were made.     

Attempted suicide among Iranian population

Predictors of suicide attempts in Iran, to distinguish any similarities and differences of these predictors between suicide attempts in Iran and other developed and developing countries and to investigate the relation between general psychiatric symptoms and repetition of suicidal attempts were assessed. The validated Farsi version of the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was used to assess multiple dimensions of quality of life of suicide attempters as depression, anxiety, social dysfunction, and somatic symptoms. Pivotal differences emerged in the clinical profiles of suicide attempters living in a developing country versus developed countries. In developing countries, those who attempt suicides are more likely to have no psychiatric disorder and are less likely to have used alcohol as part of the suicide attempt, but are more likely to have been assaulted physically or verbally. The results on the GHQ-28 indicate that the process through which individuals move from suicidal thought to action may decrease multiple dimensions of quality of life.     

The effects of adenosine receptor agonists and antagonists on morphine state-dependent memory of passive avoidance

Pretraining administration of morphine (5 mg/kg, intraperitonically) in a step-down passive avoidance task led to state-dependent learning with impaired retrieval on the test day that was dose-dependently restored by pretest administration of morphine (0.5, 1, 3, and 5 mg/kg). This restoration was reversible by pretest naloxone administration. Pretest administration of adenosine receptor antagonists theophylline or 8-phenyltheophylline (8-PT) did not alter morphine-induced amnesia. However, both the antagonists inhibited the restoration of memory by pretest morphine (5 mg/kg). Adenosine A(1) receptor agonists N(6)-cyclohexyladenosine (CHA) or N(6)-phenylisopropyladenosine (R-PIA) only at the higher doses used, and adenosine A(2) receptor agonist 5'-N-ethylcarboxaminoadenosine (NECA), at all doses used, decreased morphine-induced amnesia in a dose-dependent manner. Pretest administration of low doses of CHA, R-PIA, or NECA significantly showed additive effects with low dose pretest morphine (1 mg/kg) in restoring memory. The promnestic effects of high-dose CHA and R-PIA were inhibited by theophylline or 8-PT but not by naloxone. The additive effects of low-dose CHA or R-PIA and morphine were inhibited by theophylline, 8-PT, or a higher dose of naloxone. The promnestic effect of NECA and its additive effect with low-dose morphine were both inhibited by theophylline and naloxone but not by 8-PT. It is concluded that activation of the adenosinergic system, through both A(1) and A(2) receptors, can reverse morphine-induced amnesia and is involved in morphine state of memory.     

Enhanced visual performance in obsessive compulsive personality disorder

Visual performance is considered as commanding modality in human perception. We tested whether Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) people do differently in visual performance tasks than people without OCPD. One hundred ten students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and non‐student participants were tested by Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‐IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID‐II), among whom 18 (mean age = 29.55; SD = 5.26; 84% female) met the criteria for OCPD classification; controls were 20 persons (mean age = 27.85; SD = 5.26; female = 84%), who did not met the OCPD criteria. Both groups were tested on a modified Flicker task for two dimensions of visual performance (i.e., visual acuity: detecting the location of change, complexity, and size; and visual contrast sensitivity). The OCPD group had responded more accurately on pairs related to size, complexity, and contrast, but spent more time to detect a change on pairs related to complexity and contrast. The OCPD individuals seem to have more accurate visual performance than non‐OCPD controls. The findings support the relationship between personality characteristics and visual performance within the framework of top‐down processing model.