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  Background & Aims: Cognitive-affective factors and demographical characteristics have an important role in prediction of symptoms severity and quality of life in generalized anxiety disorder. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of cognitive-affective system and demographic characteristics in the severity of symptoms for generalized anxiety disorder.

  Materials & Methods: In a cross-sectional descriptive study, 128 outpatients with generalized anxiety disorder who attended three psychiatric outpatient's clinics of Tehran were selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected by The structured clinical interview, The Brief Core Schema Scales, The Cognitive-Behavioral Avoidance Scale, the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Anxiety Sensitivity Index-revised, and demographical questionnaire and then analyzed by multiple regression analysis in stepwise method with PASW software.

  Results: Feeling worried, anxiety sensitivity and socio-economic status have important predictive role in severity of symptoms for generalized anxiety disorder (F_(3,124)=60.85, p<0.001). These three variables were predicted 0.58 variation in symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (R²=0.58) . Age, gender, literacy, intolerance of uncertainty, emotional schema and cognitive-behavioral avoidance didn’t have significant predictive role in prediction of severity of symptoms in generalized anxiety disorder (P>0.05).

  Conclusion: Regarding the important role of feeling worried, anxiety sensitivity, and socio-economic status in prediction of symptoms severity for generalized anxiety disorder, it is necessity to pay attention to tailored interventions in these symptoms for basic quality of life promotion in these patients.  

 

  SOURCE: URMIA MED J 2014: 25(66): 20 ISSN: 1027-3727

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Background & Aims: Previous research has shown that adult male rats’ castration reduces memory and learning. On the other hand, zinc chloride has a positive impact on memory and learning in some studies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate effects of zinc chloride on passive avoidance memory of male rats, in gonadectomized peri-pubertaly.
Materials & Methods: In this experiment, fifty male rats were gonadectomized at postnatal day 21-22 and at puberty, they were divided into six groups, control, sham (saline), gonadectomized (saline), and the gonadectomized groups receiving Zinc chloride 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg. Then on postnatal day 77, passive avoidance memory was examined by the shuttle box. Different doses of zinc chloride (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg; IP) were administered 30 min before training and the test was taken 24 hours later.
Results: Gonadectomy increased the stopping time in the dark room compared to the sham group, but this increase did not reach to a significant criterion. Groups receiving zinc chloride 5 and 20 mg / kg showed a significant decrease in stopping time in the dark room compared to the gonadectomized group receiving saline (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that zinc chloride in pre-pubertal gonadectomized can improve and reduce the memory destruction caused by gonadectomy.

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Background & Aims: Hypoxia is the most common cause of seizures in the neonatal period. Seizure induced by hypoxia cause permanent increases in excitability of neurons and by changing in activity and synaptic plasticity leads to memory impairment. Crocins (Crocus sativus L.) is a water-soluble carotenoid and is the most important active components of saffron. Most studies indicate that crocin have important role in improving learning, memory and motor activity. In this work we assessed the effect of crocin following epileptic model by hypoxia on passive avoidance memory and motor activity in young rat.
Materials & Methods: In this study, 40 young rats (Wistar) 10-12 years old (18–22 g) maintained at room temperature 23±2. Rats were divided into four experimental groups: sham, crocin, hypoxia only, submitted to hypoxia followed by crocin treatment. For hypoxia induction rats placed in hypoxia container with 7% O2 and 93% N2 for 15 minutes. In crocin group, rats received crocin (30mg/kg for 21 days) after their lactation period. Finally, passive avoidance memory, balance and motor activity were assessed respectively by shuttle box, rotarod and open field instruments.
Results: A decreased step through latency and increased time spent in dark room was observed in passive avoidance test after hypoxia (p<0/05), which could be inhibited by posttreatment with crocin. Hypoxia also disrupted balance and motor activity in the rotarod and open field test (p<0/05), which could be inhibited by treatment with crocin.
Conclusion: Results of this study indicated that hypoxia impairs passive avoidance learning, balance and motor activity and crocin treatment improve these changes.