Background: Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that disrupts executive functions and emotional regulation, often leading to self-blame and perceived stigma in elderly patients. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Hypnotherapy (CBH) in enhancing executive functions, improving cognitive emotion regulation, and reducing self-blame and stigma in elderly women with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.Methods: This was a quasi-exprimental study with two-group pretest–posttest design. It was conducted from August 2024 to March 2025 on 90 women diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, recruited through convenience sampling technique from specialized Alzheimer’s centers in Tehran, Tabriz, and Ardabil (Iran). The study participants were assigned to either an experimental group receiving Cognitive Behavioral Hypnotherapy (CBH) or a control group receiving standard care. The intervention consisted of 12 individual CBH sessions held once a week, focusing on cognitive restructuring, guided imagery, emotional reframing, and post-hypnotic suggestions aimed at enhancing cognitive and emotional regulation. Outcome measures included Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), Self-Blame Questionnaire (SBQ), and Affiliate Stigma Scale (ASS), administered before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 27 through independent and paired sample t-tests, ANCOVA, and repeated measures analysis.Results: The experimental group showed significant improvements in executive functions and cognitive emotion regulation compared with the control group. Specifically, participants completed more categories on the WCST (mean difference=1.770, P<0.001) and made fewer perseverative errors (mean difference=−9.232, P<0.001). They also showed better cognitive emotion regulation (CERQ: mean difference=20.367, P<0.001). In addition, self-blame (SBQ: mean difference=−8.127, P<0.001) and stigma (ASS: mean difference=−18.068, P<0.001) were significantly reduced compared with the control group.Conclusions: Cognitive Behavioral Hypnotherapy significantly enhanced executive functions, improved cognitive emotion regulation, and reduced self-blame and perceived stigma in elderly women with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. It is recommended that the CBH protocol from this study be implemented as a standard non-pharmacological intervention in Iranian memory clinics, with weekly sessions conducted in quiet settings to enhance executive functions and reduce self-blame and perceived stigma in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s patients.
Background: Sarcopenia is characterized by age-related declines in muscle mass and function. Functional training with blood flow restriction (BFR) and betaine supplementation may improve anabolic adaptations; however, their combined effects in elderly women remain unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate their effects on serum follistatin and myostatin levels in elderly women.Methods: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial protocol will enroll 56 community-dwelling older women (≥60 years) in Tehran, Iran. Participants will be randomized (1:1:1:1 allocation via a computer-generated sequence with allocation concealment) into four parallel groups (n=14 each) including functional training with blood flow restriction plus betaine (FBFR+B), functional training with blood flow restriction plus placebo (FBFR+P), betaine supplementation alone (B; 4 g/day), or non-exercising control (CON) for 8 weeks (exercise 3 sessions/week). Primary outcomes (plasma follistatin and myostatin measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and secondary outcomes [muscle strength via 1RM bench/ leg press, functional performance via Timed Up-and-Go (TUG) and 10-Meter Walk Test (10-mWT), health-related quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF), and pain characteristics (McGill Pain Questionnaire)] will be evaluated at baseline and 48 hours following the 8-week intervention. Between-group differences will be analyzed using ANCOVA adjusted for baseline values, with significance set at P<0.05.Discussion: This study will evaluate the effects of functional training combined with blood flow restriction (BFR) and betaine supplementation on serum follistatin and myostatin levels in elderly women. Findings from this research may inform future guidelines for non-pharmacological interventions to preserve muscle health, preserve independence, and manage sarcopenia in aging populations.
Background: Family interactions and psychological resources play critical roles in adolescent development. This study examined the relationship between family communication patterns (conversation and conformity orientations) and academic identity among female adolescents, focusing on the mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction.Methods: In this cross-sectional correlational study, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted. The sample comprised 384 female secondary school students in Zanjan, Iran, selected by multistage cluster random sampling during the 2023–2024 academic year. Participants completed the Persian versions of the Academic Identity Questionnaire, the Revised Family Communication Patterns Instrument, and the Basic Psychological Needs Scale. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS version 4 and SPSS version 25. Also, bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples was used to evaluate direct and indirect effects.Results: Conversation orientation had a significant positive direct effect on basic psychological need satisfaction (β=0.47, t=6.12, P<0.001) and positive academic identity (β=0.28, t=3.83, P<0.001), while negatively predicting negative academic identity (β= -0.25, t=4.05, P<0.001). Conversely, conformity orientation was negatively associated with basic psychological needs (β= -0.33, t=4.31, P<0.001) and positive academic identity (β= -0.22, t=5.17, P<0.001), and positively associated with negative academic identity (β=0.26, t=3.88, P<0.001). Basic psychological needs significantly mediated the relationships between both family communication orientations and academic identity dimensions (P<0.01).Conclusions: This study demonstrated that basic psychological need satisfaction is associated with the pathway through which family communication patterns relate to academic identity among adolescent girls. Conversation-oriented family communication was linked to more adaptive academic identity by greater autonomy, competence, and relatedness, whereas conformity orientation was associated with impaired positive identity formation through lower need satisfaction.
Background: Marital dissolution acts as a severe psychosocial stressor that frequently compromises women’s psychological wellbeing, a vulnerability that is often exacerbated by societal stigma. The present study sought to evaluate and compare the efficacy of Divorce Stigma Reduction (DSR) training versus Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in fostering the Sense of Coherence (SOC) among divorced women.Method: The research employed a quasi-experimental design featuring pretest, posttest, and a two-month follow-up phase, alongside a waitlist control group. The target population consisted of divorced women seeking services at the Rose Counseling Center in Shiraz, Iran, during 2024. Through convenience sampling, 45 eligible individuals were recruited and randomly allocated into three equal groups (n=15 per group). Participants in the first experimental condition attended eight 90-minute sessions of DSR training, while those in the second condition underwent eight 90-minute sessions of MBCT. The control group received no active intervention during the study period. Assessment of the primary outcome was conducted using the 29-item Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-29). Statistical analyses, comprising repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni post-hoc comparisons, were executed using SPSS version 26.Results: The repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant group-by-time interaction effects for both overall SOC and its underlying components (P<0.001). Compared to the waitlist controls, participants receiving DSR training and MBCT demonstrated significant improvements in SOC scores across the posttest and follow-up evaluations (P<0.001). At postintervention, the mean total SOC scores were 72.33±6.04 for the DSR condition, 65.27±6.68 for the MBCT condition, and 47.47±5.86 for the control group. Notably, DSR training yielded significantly greater gains in total SOC at posttest relative to MBCT (mean difference=7.06, 95%CI [3.12, 11.00], P<0.001). Furthermore, these therapeutic gains were adequately sustained at the two-month follow-up assessment.Conclusions: While both therapeutic interventions proved successful in bolstering SOC among divorced women, DSR training exhibited significantly greater clinical efficacy than MBCT within this specific population.
