Zahra Farahmand’s research while affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences and other places

To evaluate the evidences related to the effectiveness of neurofeedback treatment for people with OCD. A literature review and meta-analysis of current controlled trials for patients with OCD symptoms was conducted across different databases. So, the primary outcome measure was OCD symptoms in subjects based on DSM IV. Y-BOCS was considered as primary outcomes. Nine met inclusion criteria (including 1211 patients). Analysis showed there was an important benefit of neurofeedback treatment in comparison to other treatments (MD = -6.815; 95% CI = [-9.033, -4.598]; P < 0.001). The results provide preliminary evidence that NFB is efficacious method for OCD and suggest that more clinical trials are needed to compare common treatment such as medication, neurological, and behavioral interventions.

Scant research has investigated emotion regulation strategies in somatization disorder, despite its high comorbidity with depression and the growing interest in this topic in depression. The present study investigated emotion regulation strategies in patients with major depression and somatization disorder using clinical samples to examine common vulnerability factors and to provide evidence for difficulties in emotion regulation as transdiagnostic factors in these disorders. Patients with major depressive disorder ( n = 30) and patients with somatization disorder ( n = 30) completed measures of putatively adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use. Patients with somatization disorder showed higher scores on measures of regulatory strategies, as measured by the sum of adaptive strategies in the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire as well as the following subscales: positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, and refocusing on a plan. After controlling for levels of current depression, the significant effects remained for positive refocusing. Depression symptom severity was significantly and negatively correlated with most adaptive strategies and positively correlated with most maladaptive strategies. The current results provide preliminary data for a similar pattern of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies usage in these two disorders. The results also contribute to theories of psychopathology and our understanding of critical cognitive and emotional processes.

Cognitive theories of depression posit that early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) are key vulnerability factors for psychological disorders. In this study, we investigated specific EMSs as shared or distinct cognitive vulnerability factors for depression and somatization disorder. The sample consisted of patients with Major depressive disorder (N = 30) and Somatization disorder (N = 30) from a community hospital or a psychiatric clinic. Participants completed the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the short form of the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ-SF). Depressed patients exhibited significantly higher levels of all five schema domains and specific maladaptive schemas, including emotional deprivation, mistrust and abuse, social isolation and alienation, defectiveness and shame, failure, subjugation, emotional inhibition, and insufficient self-control or self-discipline. Moreover, depressed patients exhibited significantly higher levels of social isolation, emotional inhibition, as well as the overvigilance and inhibition domain when depressive symptom severity was controlled. Our results provide preliminary evidence that specific EMSs distinguish patients with depression and somatization. Suggestions for future research include the need to have a non-psychiatric control group, to evaluate the absolute role of EMSs in Somatization Disorder.

Several cognitive domains, including attention, memory, and executive functions are impaired in bipolar disorder. This study aimed to investigate two executive functions (working memory and response inhibition) in patients with bipolar I disorder during remission of the symptoms. In this case-control design, 30 bipolar I patients (18 to 45 years old) were matched with 30 ones in the control group in terms of age, gender, and education. The patients were selected from Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital (a hospital affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences) from May to October 2013. They were evaluated and contrasted using working memory (Spatial Span and Spatial Working Memory (SSP and SWM)) and response inhibition (Stop Signal Task (SST)) tests. We used independent t-tests for comparing and contrasting 2 groups on total and sub-scales scores of these 3 tests. In terms of SWM test there was a significant difference in between-group error between the two groups (P = 0.05); there was also a meaningful difference between the strategies used by two groups (P = 0.05). In SSP test, a significant difference appeared between averages of span length of the two groups. In the first and last item delays, there was also a clear difference, but the total error index was not noticeably different. In SST test, the direction error indicator in start-stop trials indicated a major difference, while in successful stops ratio, the case group had a lower ratio. In addition, reaction time to stop signs in bipolar group was meaningfully lower than the control group. In conclusion, even during remission phase, executive dysfunction is detectable at least in some areas in patients with bipolar disorder.