دکتر منوچهر ازخوش

Grief is a human, universal, personal and multidimensional experience. Although studies have been conducted to describe grief, there is no consensus among scholars about its theoretical or empirical definition in older adults. This study aims to analyze the concept of grief in old age.

This is a review study that was conducted in eight steps using Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method. To find studies related to grief in the elderly, a search in online databases including ScienceDirect, Scopus, PsychInfo, PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE using keywords: Grief, mourn, bereavement, old, geriatric, aging, age, later life, seniors, nonagenarian, octogenarian and centenarian. Also, articles were examined without considering the time limit published until January 30, 2023. The search strategy, screening, and data reporting were done based the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement.

Of 5963 articles, 34 were included. According to the findings, grief had five features, “a unique phenomenon”, “negative emotional experience”, “physiological irritation”, “experience of loneliness”, and “loss of previous meanings”. Three antecedents of grief included: Loss of loved ones, loss of pets, spouse divorce, and loss of health. Four consequences of grief included health consequences, social consequences, financial consequences, and resiliency.

The provided definition of grief in older adults can help the health team understand the concept better and carry out investigations, interventions, and evaluations to improve the health of the elderly.

Albinism is a genetic disease that causes vision limitations and skin and hair problems as a result of a disorder in melanin conversion. This disease can have wide psychosocial consequences among the sufferers. This study reviews and investigates the psychosocial experiences of people with albinism.

This study is a review type and a thematic synthesis. This review examined the qualitative articles published until February 2023 in Persian and English in the field of psychosocial experiences of people with albinism. Articles related to extensive search were selected in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, SID, and Magiran databases, as well as the Google Scholar search engine.

In the first stage of the search, 868 articles were obtained, after removing duplicate and unrelated items and checking the titles and abstracts of the articles, 365 articles were omitted and 102 articles remained. By combining the codes of qualitative articles related to the psychosocial experiences of albinism, two main themes were obtained with the titles of psychosocial challenges of people with albinism (PWA) and support resources and coping strategies in people with albinism.

PWA experience many challenges in life and they are equipped with some support resources and coping strategies to deal with these challenges, which reduces the difficulty of the mentioned challenges. Knowing these psychosocial challenges and support resources can help professionals and individuals who deal with PWA to make policies and plan and develop treatment and rehabilitation programs to create favorable and effective conditions.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease in which the myelin lining the central nervous system is damaged. The complex nature of the disease making the diagnosis more difficult for the patient to face. This study explored the experiences of facilitators and barriers adjustment to MS by Iranian patients.

This study was conducted by using descriptive phenomenological approach. The participants included 14 patients (8 women and 6 men) referred to Rafideh Hospital in Tehran. The participants were selected by purposive sampling and maximum variety. Data collection continued through semi-structured interviews until theoretical saturation. The duration of the interviews was between 30-60 minutes. Data analysis was done with MAXQDA software and using the 7-step descriptive collaizzi,s method continuously and simultaneously with data collection. In order to check the robustness of the results, Lincoln and Goba criteria of validity, reliability, transferability and verifiability were used.

The 5 main themes related to facilitators of adaptation that emerged included religious strategies, receive emotional and professional support, search and find information, psychological coping strategies, and life style (and 18 subcategories). Also the three main themes related to barrier of adaptation that emerged included health-related, patient-related and social-related barriers (and 8 subcategories).

These themes represent the perceived characteristics, facilitators and barriers of adaptation to Multiple Sclerosis by patients. Therefore, it is necessary to design or implement therapeutic interventions based on these findings by psychologists and counselors for patients to reduce psychological problems.

This research aimed to design a rehabilitation counseling protocol based on short-term dynamic psychotherapy according to the experiences of people with albinism. The current type of research was mixed, applied, and qualitative in the content analysis method. The statistical population of this research was people with albinism in 2019. 13 people with albinism were purposefully selected to participate in the study. To collect data in the qualitative part, semi-structured interviews were used and the data were analyzed with MAXQDA software. To measure the content validity of the developed package, the validity coefficient of Lavshe was used. 3 main themes and 29 secondary themes were obtained from the interviews. Then, by reviewing the study of literature and psychodynamic approaches, a rehabilitation counseling protocol based on short-term dynamic psychotherapy was developed in 3 phases, and it was given to 9 short-term dynamic psychotherapists to check its content validity. According to the approval of this protocol by experts, the prepared protocol can be used as a rehabilitation intervention for people with albinism

Cognitive emotion regulation refers to the ability to manage personal emotional reactions through cognitive strategies that occur after an unfortunate event. Emotional dysfunction is thought to be common among the elderly due to their certain limitations. Cognitive-behavioral Music therapy (CBMT) seems to be capable to act as a bridge to new insights and behaviors. Hence, the aim of the current study was to determine the effectiveness of CBMT on cognitive regulation of emotion in the elderly. The present study was a quasi-experimental study with the pretest-posttest and a control group design. The statistical population consisted of all the elderly registered in the day care centers in Babol, Iran in 2019 among which one was selected using convenience sampling method. Out of 53 people eligible to participate in the study according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 were randomly assigned in two groups of experiment and control (each group with 15 people). Experimental group underwent six sessions of cognitive-behavioral music therapy, while no intervention was performed for the control group. The research tool was Garnefskis’s cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. Data were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance in SPSS-22 software. Findings indicated that CBMT resulted in cognitive regulation of elderly emotions (P<0.05). Based on the findings, CBMT can be applied as an effective model in counseling and psychotherapy centers for cognitive regulation of emotion in the elderly. This treatment method contributes to the cognitive control and the alteration of negative and self-defeating thoughts.

Nowadays، with advances in medical sciences، possibility of fertility has been provided for many couples، but according to characteristics of this methods and challenges facing these therapies، their acceptance will depend on several factors. The aim of this study was determining the relationship between demographic characteristics of infertile cases with their attitudes toward modern assisted reproductive techniques. This descriptive-correlational study was carried out on 250 infertile men and women who referred to infertility research center of Yazd، Iran، 2012. Cases were selected randomly. Data were collected by two-part questionnaire containing demographic information and attitudinal statements and analyzed using SPSS software version 18، independent t-test، ANOVA and Spearman correlation coefficient tests. P value less than 0. 05 was considered significant. The differences between duration of marriage (p=0. 01)، duration of infertility (p=0. 000)، age (p=0. 04) and income (p=0. 004) were statistically significant with attitudes toward assisted reproductive techniques. But، no significant differences were found between attitudes scores toward assisted reproductive techniques and gender، education level and type of accommodation (p>0. 05). The increase in duration of marriage، duration of infertility، age and adequate income will affect infertile attitudes toward assisted reproductive techniques.

Opium and stimulants are two kinds of illegal substances which are different from each other in chemical structure، psychological and biological effects (material)، and their potential adverse effects on consumers. The present study compares the effect of abuse of each of the two (opium and stimulants) on violent behavior against wives. The present study was a non-experimental and comparative study. The study sample included 100 spouses of men addicted to opium and stimulants (50 opium and 50 stimulant addicts) who attended governmental or non-governmental centers or camps in Tehran city (from October 2011 to January 2012)، in order to receive professional assistances. (Both groups of subjects were selected by convenient sampling method to ensure the compatibility with input and output data. The “revised conflict tactics scale” was used to assess the rates of violence (psychological، sexual coercion، negotiation، injury and physical assault) exerted by men. Results were analyzed using multi-variety analysis of variance and covariance. Results showed that after controlling the age as a covariate، consumers of stimulants (especially methamphetamine) were more violent toward their wives than were consumers of opium (P≤0. 001). There were also significant differences between the two groups in the psychological، sexual coercion، injury and physical assault subscales، but not in the negotiation subscale (P≤0. 05). It seems that the psychopharmacological effect of stimulants leads to more violent behaviors in its consumers (especially by methamphetamine) than in consumers of opium.

this study aimed to standardize the Relationship Be- liefs Questionnaire (RBQ; Romance & DeBord, 1995) and to investigate irrational beliefs about marital relation- ships in an Iranian population. Data provided by 535 marr- ied Iranian participants (244 males and 291 females), com- pleting the RBQ, resulted in omitting 13 items due to low item total correlation and factor loadings. Cronbach's alpha for the remaining 58 items scale and test-retest reliability were 0.95 and 0.93 respectively. The result of explanatory factor analysis using oblique rotation method showed that the scale included seven factors, including expectations to: a) be perfect in a marital relationship, b) be interdepen- dent, c) have monogamous relations, d) be devoted, e) be rational and open to each other, f) read each other’s mind, and g) be aware of each others past thoughts, feelings and needs. The extracted factors confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. A positive correlation (r = 0.32, P < 0.01) between RBQ and the Irrational Beliefs Test (Jones, 1968) supported the convergent validity. No university educated participants showed more irrational beliefs than did more educated participants. There were no gender or age differences in irrational beliefs about marital relationships. The length of marriage and number of children also were not correlated to such irrational beliefs. The standardized scores of RBQ measures are presented.