2D:4D-ratios among individuals with amphetamine use disorder, antisocial personality disorder and with both amphetamine use disorder and antisocial personality disorder.

BACKGROUND: There is sufficient evidence that the index-finger-to-ring-finger-ratio (2D:4D-ratio) is associated with testosterone and estrogen exposure during the fetal stage. More specifically, a lower 2D:4D-ratio (that is; a shorter index finger, compared to a longer ring finger) was associated with a prenatally higher testosterone and lower estrogen exposure during the first trimester of the fetal stage. At a behavioral level, among adults, a lower 2D:4D-ratio was associated with a higher competitive performance among both female and male professional athletes, and with personality traits such as higher scores for mental toughness, dark triad traits, and aggressive behavior, and internet use disorder. Here, we tested, if 2D:4D-ratios differed among three clinical samples of individuals with amphetamine use disorder (AUD), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), or both AUD and ASPD (AUD + ASPD), and when compared to healthy controls. METHOD: The sample consisted of 44 individuals (mean age: 32.95 years; 22.7% females) diagnosed either with AUD (n = 25), ASPD (n = 10) or both AUD + ASPD (n = 9), and of 36 healthy controls (mean age: 23.28; 25% females). After a thorough clinical assessment, participants provided the scans of their right-hand palm to measure the lengths of their index finger and ring finger. Further, participants with AUD, ASPD and both AUD + ASPD completed a series of self-rating questionnaires on Dark Triad traits, narcissism sensitivity, and intolerance of uncertainty. RESULTS: Compared to healthy controls, participants with AUD, ASPD, or AUD + ASPD showed statistically significantly lower 2D:4D-ratios. Participants with AUD + ASPD showed statistically significantly lowest 2D:4D-ratios, compared to participants with AUD and compared to healthy controls. For the clinical sample, a lower 2D:4D-ratio was associated with higher Dark Triad traits. 2D:4D-ratios were unrelated to narcissism sensitivity or intolerance of uncertainty. Higher scores for Dark Triad traits were associated with higher scores for narcissism sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to healthy controls, individuals with amphetamine use disorder and concomitant antisocial personality disorder (AUD + ASPD) appeared to have been exposed to particularly high prenatal testosterone and particularly low estrogen concentrations, which, at a behavioral level, might have led to a fast life history for immediate resource acquisition.

Assessing the impact of stigma reduction interventions in Iran: A qualitative study from the perspective of mental health stakeholders.

Introduction: The fear and embarrassment associated with stigmas discourage patients from help seeking behavior, which may explain why even the patients' loved ones advise them to discontinue treatment to avoid being labeled. In addition, stigmas can lead to personal and family issues, causing patients to disregard their illness. As such, their disease may develop into a chronic condition. This being said, the present study aims to investigate the challenges, solutions, and successes associated with stigmatization in Iran from the perspective of mental health stakeholders. Method: A qualitative study was conducted in the summer of 2022. Purposive sampling was utilized to recruit participants. The primary data collection method involved a focus group interview that lasted 110 min. The project manager monitored the interviews, and all research team members attended the meetings, took notes, and made the necessary preparations. After explaining the study's purpose and ensuring the data's confidentiality, the interviewer led a focus group discussion. The interviews were recorded with the participants' consent. A focus group was used to conduct interviews with 13 individuals until data saturation was reached. Findings: Ten psychologists, psychiatrists, and managers responsible for mental health, two patients, and one patient's family member participated in the current study as eligible participants. Repeated readings led to the emergence of three main classes under the headings of challenges, solutions, and successes of stigma management in Iran, each containing subclasses. Conclusion: The majority of the proposed solutions in this study centered on raising awareness and training diverse individuals and groups to lessen stigmas. The most crucial de-stigmatization measure is to offer training that will cause the current stereotypes to change. This must be taken by patients and their families as well as therapists, leaders, policymakers, the general public, and the media. Ideally, younger members of the target groups should be considered for these pieces of training, which must be based on research and derived from cultural and localized needs.

When Much Is Too Much-Compared to Light Exercisers, Heavy Exercisers Report More Mental Health Issues and Stress, but Less Sleep Complaints.

BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity has become a global somatic and mental health issue. To counterbalance, promoting regular physical activity appears plausible, above all among adults, where physical inactivity is particularly high. However, some, but sparse, research also indicates that excessive exercising might be associated with unfavorable mental health dimensions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that excessive exercising was associated with more mental health issues. To this end, we assessed mental health issues, stress, mental toughness, and sleep disturbances among heavy and light adult exercisers. METHODS: A total of 200 adults (mean age: 35 years; 62% females) took part in the study. Of those, 100 were heavy exercisers (18-22 h/week), and 100 were light exercisers (1-6 h/week). Participants completed questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, mental health issues, perceived stress, mental toughness, and sleep disturbances. RESULTS: Compared with light exercisers, heavy exercisers reported higher mental health issues, more stress, but also higher mental toughness scores and less sleep disturbances. Higher age, lower mental toughness scores, heavy exerciser-status, and more sleep disturbances predicted higher mental health complaints. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with light exercising, heavy exercising might be associated with more mental health issues. As such, it appears that the association between exercise frequency, intensity, and duration and psychological well-being might be related to an optimum point, but not to a maximum point. In a similar vein, heavily exercising athletes, their coaches, parents, and representatives of sports associations should get sensitized to possible adverse psychological effects of excessive physical activity patterns.

Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder Report High Scores of Insecure-Avoidant and Insecure-Anxious Attachment Styles, Dissociative Identity Symptoms, and Adult Traumatic Events.

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) report more issues in social interaction compared to the general population. Moreover, dimensions of dissociation are considered dysfunctional strategies to cope with adverse life events. In this regard, current symptoms of MDD could be associated with traumatic events that occurred in childhood and in adult life. Given this background, the aim of the present study was to explore the associations between attachment styles as a proxy of quality of social interaction, dimensions of dissociation, and childhood and adult traumatic life events among individuals with MDD. METHOD: A total of 300 individuals with MDD (mean age: 31.31 years; 58.7% female) took part in this study. They completed a series of questionnaires on sociodemographic information, attachment styles, dimensions of dissociation, and childhood and adult traumatic life events. RESULTS: Prevalence rates for attachment styles were as follows: anxious/ambivalent attachment style-71.7%; avoidant/dependent attachment style-13%; secure/close attachment style-15.3%. Compared to the general population, the participants reported higher prevalence rates of insecure attachment styles. Current symptoms of dissociation were associated with adult but not childhood traumatic life events. An anxious attachment style was associated with higher scores of dissociation. CONCLUSION: Psychotherapeutic treatment of individuals with MDD should consider the individuals' challenging attachment styles and their risk of dissociation. While it is important to consider both adult and childhood traumatic events, in this research, more recent trauma occurring in adulthood was associated with current symptoms of dissociation.

Risk-taking behaviors and subgrouping of suicide in Iran: A latent class analysis of national registries data.

Suicide is one the most important public health problem which is rapidly growing concerns. The aim of this study was to subgroup suicide using LCA method. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Iran based on 66990 records registered in Ministry of Health in 2014. A case report questionnaire in the form of software was used for case registries. Latent class analysis was used to achieve the research objectives. Four latent classes were identified; (a) Non-lethal attempters without a history of psychiatric disorders, (b) Non-lethal attempters with a history of psychiatric disorders, (c) Lethal attempters without a history of psychiatric disorders, (d) Lethal attempters with a history of psychiatric disorders. The probability of completed/an achieved suicide is high in lethal attempter classes. Being male increases the risk of inclusion in lethal attempters' classes (OR = 4.93). Also, being single (OR = 1.16), having an age lower than 25 years (OR = 1.14) and being a rural citizen (OR = 2.36) associate with lethal attempters classes. The males tend to use more violent methods and have more completed suicide. Majority of the individuals are non-lethal attempters who need to be addressed by implementing preventive interventions and mental support provision.

Inpatient Opioid Withdrawal Management of Street Children and Adolescents Admitted to Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Ward: A Preliminary Case Series.

BACKGROUND: About 10 million children worldwide live or work on the street. International reports estimate the prevalence of substance use among street children to be between 25% - 90%, which is who were referredntal disorders and high-risk behaviors. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to report the outcomes of assisted withdrawal of opioid-dependent vulnerable children and adolescents who were referred to child and adolescent psychiatric ward of Ali Ebne Abitaleb hospital, an academic hospital in Zahedan city. METHODS: Clinical chart abstractions were performed on a convenience sample of 40 serial opioid-dependent street children and adolescents (mean age: 11.14 ± 3.6 years) who were referred to child and adolescent psychiatric ward of Ali Ebne Abitaleb treatment and research center from November 2014 to May 2015. The demographic data, drug use history, comorbid physical and psychiatric conditions, symptomatology of opioid withdrawal syndrome, pharmacotherapies and psychosocial services, length of hospital stay, and any adverse events were extracted from the patients' files using a checklist developed by the authors. RESULTS: Twenty-four (60%) patients were male, and 16 (40%) were female. The main drug used by all patients was opioids. Heroin Kerack (which has a street name of crystal in southeast Iran) was the most common (75%) drug of use, followed by opium (10%) and opium residue (7.5%). None of the participants self-reported using injected drugs. The high rate of a lack of eligibility for guardianship was documented among parents (87.5%) mainly due to their use of illegal drugs. Musculoskeletal pain and diarrhea were the most common withdrawal symptoms of the patients upon admission. The mean length of stay was 10.8 (± 7.30) days, and no significant adverse events were reported during the symptomatic treatment of opioid withdrawal syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on the safety and feasibility of inpatient symptomatic pharmacological treatment for assisted withdrawal among opioid-dependent children and adolescents in Iran. More well-designed studies to investigate the long-term outcomes of opioid treatment among children are warranted.

Estimating the Completeness of Lung Cancer Registry in Ardabil, Iran with a Three-Source Capture-Recapture Method.

Cancer registration is an important component of a comprehensive cancer control program, providing timely data and information for research and administrative use. Capture-recapture methods have been used as tools to investigate completeness of cancer registry data. This study aimed to estimate the completeness of lung cancer cases registered in Ardabil Population Based Cancer Registry (APBCR) with a three-source capture-recapture method. Data for all new cases of lung cancer reported by three sources (pathology reports, death certificates, and medical records) to APBCR for 2006 and 2008 were obtained. Duplicate cases shared among the three sources were identified based on similarity of first name, last name and father's names. A log-linear model was used to estimate number of missed cases and to control for dependency among sources. A total of 218 new cases of lung cancer was reported by three sources after removing duplicates. The estimated completeness calculated by log-linear method was 26.4 for 2006 and 27.1 for 2008. The completeness differed according to gender. In men, the completeness was 26.0% for 2006 and 28.1 for 2008. In women, the completeness was 36.5% for 2006 and 46.9 for 2008. In conclusion, none of the three sources can be considered as a reliable source for accurate cancer incidence estimation.