Mahmoud Najafi’s research while affiliated with Semnan University and other places

Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that has been developed in recent years. One can look at this almost new emerging field of psychology through different perspectives including scientometrics (and similarly bibliometrics). In this study, the historical roots of positive psychology were traced by a new scientometrics approach called Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS) introduced in 2014. 2594 documents (1900–2017) on positive psychology indexed in Web of Science core collection were extracted. Results showed 10 peaks which present historical roots of positive psychology as depicted by RPYS analysis. The RPYS analysis showed that positive psychology dates back to 1900s, humanistic psychology and to the works of authors such as Maslow and Raggers. A turning point was observed in 2000 that highlights Seligman’s works. Afterward, other researches carried out on positive psychology promoted this field.

Background and aims: Chronic pain is a common health problem that affects various aspects of life. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) seems to be helpful in improving the quality of life and pain catastrophizing in patients with chronic pain. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of ACT and physiotherapy on quality of life and pain catastrophizing in patients with chronic pain. Methods: The subjects were 75 women suffering from chronic pain who were considered for physiotherapy. They were randomly divided into 3 groups including ACT, physiotherapy, and control groups. The control group consisted of 25 patients who were on the waiting list for physiotherapy. The first group participated in 8 sessions of ACT, the second group attended 10 sessions of physiotherapy, and the control group received no treatment. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) developed by Sullivan et al and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire were used in this study. Results: The results showed that the quality of life in the ACT group was significantly higher than that in the physiotherapy group and control group (P<0.001). Moreover, there was no significant difference between the ACT and physiotherapy groups in reducing pain catastrophizing (P>0.05), while this difference was significant between the ACT and control groups (P<0.001). Conclusion: In general, ACT leads to a reduction in pain catastrophizing and an increase in the quality of life of patients with chronic pain. Therefore, beside the current therapy like physiotherapy, ACT can be used as another therapeutic choice for patients with chronic pain.

This study aimed at investigating the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy on reducing depression, anxiety, and stress levels of Iranian males with addiction. The participants included 24 Iranian males with addiction selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 12) and control (n = 12) groups. Then, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale was used as the pretest, posttest, and follow-up tests to assess participants’ levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. The experimental group received eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy, while the control group did not. The findings of the study showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy was effective in reducing participants’ levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Thus, the findings indicate that the cognitive-behavioral therapy reduced the depression, anxiety, and stress of Iranian males with addiction.

The aim of this study was to compare family communication patterns among Iranian individuals with blindness, deafness and individuals with typically developing. The statistical population consisted of all Iranian individuals with blindness, deafness and individuals with typically developing in Shiraz, Iran. The sample consisted of 116 individuals (32 individuals with blindness, 21 individuals with deafness, and 63 individuals with typically developing). The Revised Family Communication Patterns scale was used for measuring the family communication patterns. Multivariate analysis of variance test were used for data analysis. The results showed that conversation orientation in individuals with typically developing were significantly higher than individuals with blindness and deafness (P<.001). Furthermore, conversation orientation in individuals with blindness was significantly higher than individuals with deafness (P<.001). Moreover, the findings showed that the conformity orientation in individuals with blindness and deafness were significantly higher than individuals with typically developing (P<.001). It should be noted that there was no significant difference among individuals with blindness and deafness in terms of conformity orientation. The results of the study indicated that reforming of family communication patterns is essential for individuals with blindness and deafness.

This study was designed to examine the effect of environmental enrichment (EE) during adolescence on spatial learning and memory and voluntary morphine consumption in maternally separated (MS) male and female rats in adulthood. Male Wistar rats were allowed to mate with female virgin Wistar rats. Pups were separated from the dams daily for 180 min during postnatal days 2–14. All pups were weaned on day 21. The pups of both sexes were reared in a standard (SE) or enriched (EE) environment during postnatal days 21–50. Then, adulthood rats were tested for spatial learning and memory (Morris Water Maze), and voluntary consumption of morphine using a two‐bottle choice paradigm (TBC). We found that the MS/SE rats showed longer escape latencies to find the platform on the third (the male) and fourth (the female) days of training than No MS/SE rats. Also, exposure to EE shortened the latency to escape in the male and female MS rats as training progressed than MS/SE rats. Moreover, the No MS/EE and MS/EE male rats spent significantly more time in the target zone compared with the SE control groups in the probe test. We also found that voluntary morphine consumption was higher in the male and female MS/SE than No MS/SE rats, while it was lower in the male and female MS/EE rats. The present results have shown that EE treatment may have potential therapeutic application for the prevention of the development of drug addiction and recovery from cognitive deficits following neonatal MS during adulthood.

The purpose of the study is to compare effectiveness of emotion regulation skills training based on Gross Model and Linehan Model on suicidal thoughts in adolescents with borderline personality disorder. This is an experimental study with pre-test, post-test and control group and two-month follow-up. The study population included all the adolescents with borderline personality disorder that were referred to counseling centers, psychiatrists, psychiatric services as well as suicide emergency centers in Tehran city in 2017. 45 subjects were selected by random sampling method and randomly were divided into two experimental groups and one control group waiting for treatment (n=15). Both experimental groups were under treatment within 8 sessions, weekly 2 sessions of 90 minutes while the control group received no treatment. The research tool included beck scale for suicide ideation which was conducted in pre-test, post-test. Data analysis showed Linehan Model has more effectiveness in reducing the suicidal thoughts of adolescents with borderline personality disorder than Grass Model and this effectiveness was stable. According to the findings both models of emotion regulation skills training were effective due to common components of treatment on reduction of suicidal thoughts. Overall, the results indicated a more effective Linehan Model on suicidal thoughts. Therefore, it can be used to improve suicidal thoughts.