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Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effects of Liothyronine supplementation on memory performance in patients diagnosed with mood disorders (major depressive or bipolar disorder). Methods: This double-blind controlled clinical trial was conducted on patients with major depression and bipolar disorder. The participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention group receiving Liothyronine or the placebo group, with 33 patients in each group, for a duration of one month. Memory performance was assessed before the first, fourth, and final Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) sessions, as well as one month after the last session using the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R). Data analysis was performed using independent-samples Chi-square test and the Greenhouse-Geisser correction factor. Results: Liothyronine significantly enhanced communicative learning and visual memory in patients with major depression and bipolar disorder one month after the final ECT session. Additionally, a positive effect of Liothyronine on immediate recall was observed before the last ECT session. Conclusion: Liothyronine supplementation improves ECT-induced cognitive impairment in patients with major depression and bipolar disorder. Further research is necessary to fully comprehend the potential of Liothyronine as an adjunctive treatment for major depression and bipolar disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic wounds have made a challenge in medical healthcare due to their biofilm infections, which reduce the penetrance of the antibacterial agents in the injury site. In infected wounds, the most common bacterial strains are Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Biofilm disruption in chronic wounds is crucial in wound healing. Due to their broad-spectrum antibacterial properties and fewer side effects, anti-biofilm peptides, especially bacteriocins, are promising in the healing of chronic wounds by biofilm destruction. This study reviews the effects of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm agents, including bacteriocins and protease enzymes as a novel approach, on wound healing, along with analyzing the molecular docking between a bacterial protease and biofilm components. Among a large number of anti-biofilm bacteriocins identified up to now, seven types have been registered in the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) database. Although it is believed that bacterial proteases are harmful in wound healing, it has recently been demonstrated that these proteases like the human serine protease, in combination with AMPs, can improve wound healing by biofilm destruction. In this work, docking results between metalloprotease from Paenibacillus polymyxa and proteins of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa involved in biofilm production, showed that this bacterial protease could efficiently interact with biofilm components. Infected wound healing is an important challenge in clinical trials due to biofilm production by bacterial pathogens. Therefore, simultaneous use of proteases or anti-biofilm peptides with antimicrobial agents could be a promising method for chronic wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitamin D deficiency in cigarette smokers (CS) might associate with several complications, including metabolic deficits, depression and anxiety. This study evaluated the effects of vitamin D on mental health symptoms, nicotine misuse, and biomarkers of metabolic diseases in individuals with a tobacco use disorder. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted with 60 CS subjects receiving either 50,000 IU vitamin D supplements (n = 30) or placebo (n = 30) every 2 weeks for 24-weeks. Nicotine misuse, mental health scale, and metabolic parameters were measured before and after the intervention in the CS subjects. Compared with the placebo-group, after the 24-weeks intervention, serum 25 (OH) vitamin D levels increased in the intervention group (β 2.96; 95% CI, 0.91, 5.01; P = 0.006). In addition, vitamin D supplementation significantly improved Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (β −2.06; 95% CI, −3.84, −0.28; P = 0.02). In addition, vitamin D administration significantly decreased fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (β −4.56; 95% CI, −8.94, −0.19; P = 0.04), insulin (β −0.50; 95% CI, −0.88, −0.13; P = 0.009), and homeostasis model of assessment-estimated insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels (β −0.21; 95% CI, −0.33, −0.08; P = 0.001). Furthermore, vitamin D resulted in a significant elevation in total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (β 81.20; 95% CI, 18.30, 144.11; P = 0.01), and plasma glutathione (GSH) levels (β 73.05; 95% CI, 18.56, 127.54; P = 0.01), compared with the placebo-group. Administration of vitamin D for 24-weeks to CS subjects had beneficial effects on symptoms of depression and several metabolic biomarkers. While this preliminary study suggests that vitamin D might have beneficial effects, its clinical efficacy in individuals with a tobacco use disorder should be further validated in future clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Child abuse is considered a significant public health problem that its different consequences can affect victim lifespan. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of child abuse in children referred to Kashan Social Emergency. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted by referring to child abuse records of Kashan Social Emergency during 2006 to 2016. Data were analyzed with SPSS-16 and Fisher Exact and Chi-square tests. Results: The mean age of cases was 8.06 ± 4.28 years. Among cases 192 (71.6%) were neglect, 95 (35.4%) experienced emotional, 87 (32.5%) physical, and 12 (4.5%) experienced sexual abuse. Among abused children, anxiety was reported as the most common complication of psychological abuse (12.3%). Academic failure and malnutrition were reported as the most common complications of neglect abuse. In the case of physical abuse, the most common complications were bruising, swelling, injury, and burns. Sexual promiscuity was a complication of sexual abuse. The complications of emotional and psychological abuse significantly correlated with the sex. The sexual and physical abuse and neglect complications had no significant correlation with sex. There are statistical differences between sex, physical neglect (P=0.04) and physical abuse (P=0.001). Conclusion: It seems that neglect abuse is the most common child abuse among the cases referred to social emergency. The boys are more at risk of physical neglect and physical abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of cognitive reappraisal strategy on cognitive functions in disgust induction situations among obsessive-compulsive patients. This study was a pre-posttest research design with a control group in experimental environment. Participants consisted of 44 individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder who were selected from mental health clinics of Kashan, Iran. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. All participants provided background questionnaires including Yale-Brown Obsessive -Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), Padua Inventory (PI), Emotion Regulation Scale (ERQ), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and disgustpropensity and sensitivity scaleand the cognitive function tasks including IowaGambling Task (IGT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Stroop Task (ST).The induction only condition (IOC) as control group had not received training beside the disgust emotion induction. In post-test phase after watching disgust induction films, subjects were asked to answer the cognitive tests again immediately after they watched to a minute's disgust films in three steps. Covariance analysis tests was used to analyze data and results showed that the cognitive reappraisal training (CRT)group outperformed in post-test step in IGT, reaction time in ST and the correct answers in WCST. Accordingly, we could suggest that cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy could improve the decision-making, inhibition and set shifting in disgust induction situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health is one of the most important public health issues because of its major contribution in decreasing the global burden of disease and its important role in assurance, dynamism, and efficacy. The present study evaluates the prevalence of mental disorders in the over 18-year-old population in Kashan, Iran during 2008-2009. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Subjects were selected via stratified random sampling. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, subjects were evaluated using the General Health Questionnaire. In stage two, two psychiatrists used a DSM-IV checklist to conduct clinical interviews. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 16, OR, CI, Chi-square, and Mantel-Heanszel tests. Results: The prevalence of mental disorders in Kashan was 29.2%. In women it was 35.5%, and in men, 21.2%. The most prevalent disorders were mood (9.3%) and anxiety disorders (4.7%). Among the 505 subjects with mental disorders based on clinical interviews, 162 (32.1%) suffered from mood disorders, 129 (25.6%) anxiety disorders, 21 (4.2%) psychotic disorders, 16 (3.4 %) neurologic disorders, 17 (3.4%) dissociative disorders, and 120 (23.7%) had other disorders. In this study, 7.8% of the subjects had more than one mental disorder. In the case of mood disorders, major depression (8.2%) was the most common; as for anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety disorder (7.2%) was the most prevalent. The prevalence was higher in people aged 56-65 (35.8%), widows (35.8%), the illiterate (42.8%), and the unemployed (38.8%). Mental disorder was significantly affected by gender, education, occupation, and marital status. Conclusions: The results show that psychiatric disorders in Kashan are higher than at the time of the previous research in this region (1999). Therefore, prevention programs and treatment of psychiatric disorders in this city are of great priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Corpus Callosum (CC) plays a significant role in hemispheric communication and in lateralized brain function and behaviors. Structural abnormalities in the corpus callosum of schizophrenic patients were reported. However, previous studies regarding the relationship between morphology of CC in patients with schizophrenia and healthy people are controversial. Objective: To evaluate the morphological differences of the CC between patients with chronic schizophrenia and healthy people and to examine the relationship between the characteristics of the CC and schizophrenia severity. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 63 patients with chronic schizophrenia (the case group) referred to Kargarnezhad Psychiatric Hospital in Kashan, Iran, and 63 healthy people (the control group) between January 2013 and December 2014. All participants underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging. Shape, anteroposterior length, and area of the CC were measured and compared in both groups. The severity of the symptoms occurring in patients with schizophrenia was evaluated using the positive and negative syndrome scale. In this study, we employed Chi-square test, t-test, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient test, bivariate analysis of variance and logistic regression were used to test the association between different variables using SPSS software version 20. Results: Results showed that the most common shape of the CC in each group was splenial bulbosity. The length and area of the CC in patients with schizophrenia were less than those of the control group and were greater in men compared with women in both groups. Although there was a significant difference in the surface area of the CC between the schizophrenic and control groups (p<0.001), no significant difference was seen regarding the anteroposterior length of CC (p=0.75). Moreover, a significant correlation was found between the surface area and anteroposterior length of the CC (p<0.001 and p<0.014, respectively). Conclusions: Morphologic characteristics of the CC can be helpful to anticipate schizophrenia especially in patients' family, and it can be used for suitable and faster treatment to prevent progressive cognitive dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The stigma attached to substance use is considered as a barrier to treatment, resulting in continued dependence and harmful consequences for the health of drug abusers and society. METHODS: In the current study, stigma and its relation with patient characteristics and secrecy was examined in people who were in treatment of drug dependency. Participants were 144 patients from two referral methadone treatment centers who completed a survey containing questionnaires about stigma, secrecy and other measures of drug use. RESULTS: Patients reported high levels of self-stigma and moderate levels of stigma-related rejection and perceived stigma as well as commonly using secrecy, as a way of coping. More experiencing of self -stigma was associated with unemployment, positive history of IV drug use, incarceration and heroin consumption, compared to opium use. IV drug users and unemployed persons also reported more contacts with stigma- related rejection. No association was found between stigma and previous history of treatment for substance abuse. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate stigma in individuals who are in the treatment for substance dependence and highlight the need for more studies to clarify all aspects of drug use stigma [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]