Compulsiveness Drives Evidence Accumulation During Ambiguity

Doubt can modulate our decision-making process. Although conceptually different, conflict (choice similarity: difficult or easy) and uncertainty (individual reward-likelihoods: uncertain or certain) are commonly related and often conflated. By posing as an evidence-accumulation problem, we assessed doubt, dissociating contextual conflict, and uncertainty and showed obsessive-compulsive disorder patients have specific impairments while processing difficult-uncertain contexts. It remains unclear whether this deficit is disorder-specific or a reflection of broader mental-health dimension. Multi-dimensional trans-diagnostic approaches help to tease out the mechanistic nature (specific or usual) of clinical observations and their validity in sub-clinical populations. Here, we first aimed to validate our conflict-uncertainty analysis approach in a larger non-clinical cohort (n>1300). Second, we assessed the relationship between decisional-parameters of difficult-uncertain contexts and a trans-diagnostic factor capturing individual differences in ‘compulsive-behavior and intrusive-thoughts’. We replicate our previous findings in a large, general population sample and highlight that the amount of evidence accumulated in difficult–uncertain scenarios increases functionally with compulsive-behavior and intrusive-thought emphasizing greater cautiousness. We further show that those with high social-withdrawal tendencies gather less evidence irrespective of context reflecting a ‘jumping to conclusions’ tendency in judgment. We attempt to bridge the gap between behavior and psychological markers by integrating trans-diagnostic and computational methods.

Students’ Mental Health: The importance of the teacher’s role and training

The adverse outcomes of society's mental health require questioning and rethink the school's traditional role, especially the teachers' role facing this crucial dimension of the students' development. These professionals collaborate every day on the students' progress through the teachers' practices in the classroom, and the relations established every day in the educational context. Therefore, this collaboration must go beyond the contents and skills related to traditional disciplines included in the schools' curricula. This article's objective is to propose action lines, addressing the practices and possibilities that teachers' training could offer addressing the support of the students in the mental health dimension, divided into three axes through a literature review. These establish the teacher-student relationship, including strategies that foster a positive school climate and detect possible communication issues in students with the corresponding network. For this, it is required an approach of the school as a community that supports the students' mental health's enhancing processes, but mostly the inclusion of pre and in-service teachers' training processes. The primary purpose is to offer more tools that allow the development and early intervention facing possible issues linked to this dimension.

Unsuccessful Weight-Loss in Adults Admitted to Health Centers, Ahvaz, Khuzestan: A Phenomenological Study

Background: Nowadays, obesity is one of the most important public health problems worldwide. There are so many various factors interfering with obesity that it is necessary to be studied separately in each population. Although many people can lose weight by observing low-energy diets, they often return to the former weight and even higher. The present study aimed to identify the causes of unsuccessful weight-loss in adults admitted to health centers in Ahvaz. Methods: This was a qualitative phenomenological study carried out in one of the health centers in western Ahvaz, 2017. The data collection tool for this study was semi-structured in-depth interview conducted face-to-face and individually. The interviews were recorded and transferred word-by-word on paper immediately. Then interviews were analyzed using the content analysis method. Results: Seven themes and 11 key concepts were extracted from the contents of the interviews.The following items led to a failure of keeping the diet and achieving the proper weight: Underlying diseases, the effects of drugs on overweightness and obesity, physical characteristics, lifestyle, affecting overweight and obesity behaviors, food habits, and psychological factors. Conclusion: Lifestyle and some diseases and medications can lead to a failure of overweight and obesity confronting programs. Provision of the educational and informational programs to the society with emphasis on the side effects of weight loss medications and lifestyle changes, especially the dietary habits, together with a consideration of the mental health dimension may affect the success of people in controlling obesity.

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Slovenian version of Harris Hip Score

Introduction The Harris Hip Score is the most widely used outcome measure for the assessment of hip pathologies. An official Slovenian version has not been culturally adapted and validated. The aim of this study was to create a Slovenian valid and reliable version of the HHS. Materials and method The HHS was translated and modified in Slovenian. The measurement properties of the Slovenian HHS were tested in 42 patients suffering from different hip pathologies. Reliability, responsiveness, construct validity, convergent/divergent validity and content validity of the Slovenian version of the HHS were tested. Results Only minor adaptation was required in the translation process. The internal consistency of the HHS expressed by Cronbach’s alpha was 0.94. The test–retest reliability expressed by the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.983. The correlations of the HHS scale with the WOMAC scale (r = − 0.877) and the VAS scale (r = − 0.717) were statistically significant. The highest correlation between the HHS and SF-36 was with the General Health dimension (r = 0.61). while the lowest correlation was with the SF-36 Mental Health dimension (r = 0.43). MDC95% was 10.1. No floor or ceiling effects were found. Conclusion Slovenian version of HHS seems to has an acceptable level of reliability and validity. Slovenian HHS is short, comprehensible and easy to administer and interpret. Trial registration Approved by the Slovenian National Medical Ethics Committee (0120-46/2019/19).

Association of somatic problems with mental health among sickle cell anaemic adolescents of Chhattisgarh, India

Background: The sickle cell disease is characterized by various somatic problems and medical complications with psychological problems. Sickle cell patient faces physical, economical and psychological burden. There is paucity of evidences in understanding the bio-psychological aspects of sickle cell anaemic patients especially in India. Therefore, an attempt has been made to know the somatic problems in adolescents and its effects in mental health of the adolescents suffering from sickle cell anaemia. The main aim was to find out association of somatic problems with mental health among adolescents suffering from sickle cell anaemia and occurrence of somatic problems among homozygous/heterozygous sickle cell adolescentsMethods: The total sample of the study consists of 309 sickle cell anaemic adolescents of age range 11-19 years. The information was collected for present research from various hospitals and health clinics of Chhattisgarh state during January, 2013 to July, 2015. An interview-schedule was prepared to know the various somatic problems and other related information. Mental Health Battery (Hindi version) was used to assess the mental health among sickle cell anaemic adolescents developed by Singh and Gupta, 1983.Results: The study revealed that 23.3 percent of the cases were homozygous whereas 76.7 percent cases were heterozygous. The overall contribution of mental health dimension are 28.0% (R2=.280; F (3,304) =31.250; p<0.01) in which two predictors of mental health namely Emotional Stability and Overall Adjustment contributed significantly. Total 84.1 percent patients were reported somatic problems and somatic problems of sickle cell patients are significantly and negatively related to all dimensions of mental health.Conclusions: For reducing the somatic problems, mental health of the adolescents will have to be increased.