The Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Patients with Epilepsy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic disorder that affects both sexes and causes some physiological and psychological disabilities. The present study aimed to examine the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the psychological profile of patients with epilepsy. Methods: The design of the present study was a randomized clinical trial with a pretest-posttest and a control group. The statistical population comprised patients with epilepsy, who were referred for treatment to a private health center in Urmia in 2019. The sample consisted of 30 patients with epilepsy selected via the convenience sampling method. Data collection was performed through the use of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire. After the pretest, 15 subjects were randomly assigned to the intervention group, and 15 subjects were placed in the control group. The intervention was performed in 10 sessions, and the duration of stimulation was 20 minutes. The anode was placed in the F3 region (left hemisphere), the cathode in the F4 (right hemisphere), and the current intensity was 1.5 mA. After the intervention, the posttest was conducted for both groups, and the data were analyzed using a univariate covariance analysis in the SPSS software, version 23. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The results of the ANCOVA analyses revealed significant differences between the intervention and control groups. The tDCS group represented a significant decrease in the scales of depression, anxiety, and stress in the posttest in comparison with the pretest (P≤0.001). Conclusion: The results showed that tDCS could reduce depression, anxiety, and stress with the changes caused in the brain system. Trial Registration Number: IRCT20190803044417N1.

Risk factors associated with depressive symptoms among undergraduate students.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship of several cognitive and emotional variables including perfectionism, rumination, and attachment quality with depressive symptoms in a sample of Iranian undergraduate students. Two hundred and ninety nine undergraduate students (144 males, 156 females) from Urmia University of Technology, Urmia University, and Urmia University of Medical Sciences participated in this study. Participants were asked to complete Tehran Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (TMPS), Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS), Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS), and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The results demonstrated that insecurity of attachment, socially prescribed perfectionism, and rumination could significantly predict the depressive symptoms in undergraduate students. Confirming predictive risk factors of depressive symptoms, results of the present study can produce an empirical basis for designing educational and health programs for people at risk. Accordingly, proper assessment of the risk factors of depressive symptoms in health care settings may provide invaluable information for prevention and management programs.

The relationship between procrastination, learning strategies and statistics anxiety among Iranian college students: a canonical correlation analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Approximately 66-80%of graduate students experience statistics anxiety and some researchers propose that many students identify statistics courses as the most anxiety-inducing courses in their academic curriculums. As such, it is likely that statistics anxiety is, in part, responsible for many students delaying enrollment in these courses for as long as possible. This paper proposes a canonical model by treating academic procrastination (AP), learning strategies (LS) as predictor variables and statistics anxiety (SA) as explained variables. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was used for data collection and 246-college female student participated in this study. To examine the mutually independent relations between procrastination, learning strategies and statistics anxiety variables, a canonical correlation analysis was computed. RESULTS: Findings show that two canonical functions were statistically significant. The set of variables (metacognitive self-regulation, source management, preparing homework, preparing for test and preparing term papers) helped predict changes of statistics anxiety with respect to fearful behavior, Attitude towards math and class, Performance, but not Anxiety. CONCLUSION: These findings could be used in educational and psychological interventions in the context of statistics anxiety reduction.