Background and Aim: One of the problems of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is behavioral excesses resistance to many educational and rehabilitation programs. Parent-mediated behavioral ...interventions seem to be effective in overcoming these problems. However, these methods are not well-introduced. The purpose of this study is to systematically review these studies and their primary and secondary outcomes, and finally analyze the components. Methods & Materials: This study was a systematic review. The search included SID, Magiran, Medline, PubMed, Springer, Science Direct, Online Library, and PsycINFO. We reviewed The articles published between 2000 and 2017 about parent-mediated behavioral interventions on behavioral excesses in autistic children. Ethical Considerations: This study with ethical code IR.SBU.ICBS.97/1013 was approved by the Biological Research Department of Shahid Beheshti University. Results: The findings of 9 studies indicated positive effects of parent-mediated behavioral intervention on behavioral excesses, including repetitive behaviors, irritability (including tantrums, aggression, and self-injurious behaviors), echolalia, and destructive behaviors (preliminary results). Also, these interventions improved the adaptive behaviors in autistic children, and parental functions such as self-efficacy, parental style, psychological problems (secondary results). Components of the therapeutic program included the type of consequence-based interventions (such as response interruption and redirection), antecedent-based interventions A (visual cue and daily schedules), antecedent-based interventions B (such as enriching environment with play). Three articles had medium certainty of the evidence, and 6 had high certainty of evidence. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated the positive effect of parent-mediated behavioral intervention on behavioral excesses in children with ASD. Future studies should emphasize the comprehensiveness of all the effective components in the parent-mediated behavioral intervention and the feasibility of the intervention in various contexts. It is suggested that parent-mediated interventions be implemented on behavioral excesses in children with ASD in Iran.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
To produce insulin-producing cells (IPCs) from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) using a simple and cost effective method. During the initial 7 days of three-dimensional (3D) culture, ...BM-MSCs were cultured on 1% agar or agarose to form multicellular spheroids. Spheroids and spheroid-derived single cells (SS and SSC, respectively) were cultured in the absence of any proteinaceous growth factor in a simple specific medium for a further 7 d. The insulin content of the differentiated cells was evaluated at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, the expression of pancreatic beta cells-related genes other than INS as well as the in vitro responses of IPCs to different glucose concentrations were investigated. Cellular clusters generated on agar and SS conditions (agar+SS-IPCs) stained better with beta cell specific stains and were more reactive to serum-containing insulin reactive antibodies compared with agarose-SS-IPCs. Gene expression analysis revealed that in comparison to agarose + SS-IPCs, agar+SS-IPCs expressed significantly higher levels of INS-1, INS-2, PDX-1, NKX6.1, andXBP-1. Of interest, agar+SSIPCs expressed 2215.3 ± 120.8-fold more INS-1 gene compared to BM-MSCs. The expression of β-cell associated genes was also higher in agar+SS-IPCs compared to the agar+SSC-IPCs. Moreover, the expression of INS-1 gene was significantly higher in agar+SS-IPCs compared with agar+SSC-IPCs after culture in media with high concentration of glucose. Compared to the most expensive and time-consuming protocols, 3D culture of MSCs on agar followed by 2D culture of cellular clusters in a minimally supplemented high glucose media produced highly potent IPCs which may pay the way to the treatment of diabetic patients.
Insulitis is defined by the presence of immune cells infiltrating in the pancreatic islets that might progress into the complete β-cell loss. The immunomodulatory properties of bone marrow-derived ...mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have attracted much attention. This study aimed to evaluate the possible immunomodulatory effects of rat BM-MSCs and MSCs-derived insulin-producing cells (IPCs) in a mouse model of pancreatic insulitis.
Insulitis was induced in BALB/c mice using five consecutive doses of streptozotocin. MSCs or IPCs were directly injected into the pancreas of mice and their effects on the expression of Th subsets-related genes were evaluated.
Both BM-MSCs and IPCs significantly reduced the expression of pancreatic Th1-related IFN-γ (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05, respectively) and T-bet genes (both P < 0.001). Moreover, the expression of IL-10 gene was significantly increased in IPC-treated compared to BM-MSC- or PBS-treated mice (P < 0.001 both comparisons).
BM-MSCs and IPCs could successfully suppress pathologic Th1 immune responses in the mouse model of insulitis. However, the marked increase in IL-10 gene expression by IPCs compared to BM-MSCs suggests that their simultaneous use at the initial phase of autoimmune diabetes might be a better option to reduce inflammation but these results need to be verified by further experiments.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Introduction: Executive dysfunction has shown to be the shared property of many cognitive symptoms seen in autism. The Home Playtime Program (HPP) is a home-based tele-cognitive rehabilitation for ...targeting executive dysfunction in children with autism. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility and effectively of this intervention. Materials and Methods: This study followed a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design without group control. Seventeen parents of children with autism aged 24-55 months (Mean=37, SD=9.1) were selected from Tehran Autism Center using available sampling method. Correspondingly, they received the HPP for 10 weeks. Preschool Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-parent form and A-Not-B test were used to measure executive function in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. Also, the Therapy Attitude Inventory (TAI) was completed by parents to assess their satisfaction with therapy. Persian version of Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test was applied to the children at the onset of the study. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analyses. Results: The findings indicated that the components of executive functions: inhibition, working memory, planning/organizing, inhibition self-control, flexibility and metacognition were significantly improved at post-test (P<0.05). These positive changes, were not only sustained until follow-up, but also, some emotional control and change were even improved during the follow-up stage (P<0.05). The parents were highly satisfied with the intervention. Conclusion: The current work provides some evidence in favor of the acceptability, feasibility and affectivity of the HPP on the executive functions of children with autism. In addition, it can easily be used under the current Coronavirus outbreak. Our service is ongoing, while the center is closed. Like many home-based interventions, the HPP shown to be ecologically valid and economically affordable. Thus, the HPP could be considered as a valuable inversion for executive dysfunction seen in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
To establish whether dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as a neurosteroid could enhance the rate of neuronal differentiation in neuronal-competent bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs), we added ...DHEA before and after plating the neurosphere-like aggregates. Flow cytometric analysis of Tubulin-III and Tau positive cells revealed that the percentages of these cells were increased significantly for the two markers following DHEA treatment at both stages. Moreover, Western blot analysis revealed that Tubulin-III protein was strongly induced by DHEA. The expression of neuronal specific genes such as Isl-1, Tubulin III, Pax6 and Nestin was also detected by RT-PCR analysis as well as BrdU incorporation and found to have increased significantly after DHEA induction. In conclusion, these results provide evidence that DHEA can affect neuronal-competent MSCs in inducing the expression of a comprehensive set of genes and proteins that define neuronal cells. DHEA was also able to induce the division of neuronal-competent MSCs, thereby increasing the number of cells with major neuronal characteristics. To our knowledge, this is the first report which shows that DHEA can induce the division and differentiation of MSCs into neurons in vitro and should provide an improved basis for new treatments using MSCs of a wide variety of neurological diseases.
Background: Adolescence is a crucial stage of life during which a person faces primary cognitive and structural changes. Objectives: In this study, we seek to investigate the relationship between ...resilience and coping styles with mental health in first grade high school students from Ardabil, Iran. Materials and Methods: We used a multistage random sampling method to select 100 first grade high school students from Ardabil. The participants were asked to complete the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Coping style questionnaire and the 28 item General Health questionnaire. Pearson correlation and multiple regressions were performed for data analysis. Results: There was a significant statistical relationship between resilience and coping styles with mental health (p < 0.01). In addition, the findings demonstrated that resilience and problem-oriented coping might significantly predict the mental health of adolescents. These findings might prove that resilience could be one of the best predictors of mental health in this study's target group of students. Conclusions: Findings of this study imply the crucial role of resilience and coping styles in mental health of adolescents. In other words, relationship between mental health and coping styles is taken into consideration due to the mediating effect of coping on perception and reaction towards environmental stress pressures. Schools play a key role in shaping the future of adolescents. In Iran, the youth constitute a significantly huge percent of our society, therefore attempts to enhance mental health in adolescents is one of the most important duties of any educational organization, particularly schools.
•Family-based Management of Behavioral Excesses of Autism Program (FMBEAP) for Iranian children with autism is feasible.•FMBEAP could be effective in reducing behavioral excesses of children with ...autism.•FMBEAP can improve parental self-efficacy and reduce parenting stress.•The findings of this study need replication on a larger sample.
Parent-mediated early behavioral interventions are considered as effective approaches in the treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The majority of these interventions focus on social-communication deficits rather than behavioral excesses which severely irrupt child and family social life as well as the child's appearance behavior and learning processes. The study examines the effectiveness and feasibility of Family-based Management of Behavioral Excesses of Autism Program (FMBEAP) on Iranian families.
This pre-post and follow-up intervention study involved 17 parents of children with DSM-5 diagnosis of ASD recruited from Tehran Autism Center. All parents conducted FMBEAP on their children while receiving 10-weekly group supervision on top of everyday on-line individual coaching. The study's measures were Repetitive Behavior Scale-R, video-monitoring of child-parent Interaction, Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale, Parental Self-Efficacy and Parenting Stress Index-short form. The measures were applied to the sample three times: pre and post-intervention and at one-month follow-up.
The Results showed high and low order behavioral excesses significantly decreased at post-intervention and the follow-up. 15 out of 17 children reached to recovered or highly recovered at post-test. Parents showed significant improvements in self-efficacy and parenting stress scales. The intervention was highly accepted by them.
FMBEAP is shown to be a feasible, acceptable and effective intervention to improve autistic behavioral. The parents should also benefit from the program in terms of self-efficacy and parenting stress. FMBEAP is highly recommended for overcoming behavioral excesses along with those interventions focus on behavioral deficits in ASD.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Abstract Background: The exact diagnosis of schizophrenic disorder from schizoaffective disorder has always been a challenge for therapists due to the comorbidity of many signs and symptoms. The ...purpose of this study is to investigate the differential diagnosis of schizophrenia disorder from schizoaffective disorder, focusing on the emotional content of their memories. Materials and Methods: The present study is a causal-comparative study on 23 male and female patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (without any comorbid diagnosis). Using a clinical interview, the emotional events and memories of their lives, as well as the amount of affective and emotional words used by these patients in expressing their memories, have been assessed. To determine the differences between the two groups, the data were analyzed by Chi-square test. Results: Results showed that men with schizophrenia had a significant difference in expressing the amount of emotional events in their lives, as well as in expressing affective and emotional words compared to schizoaffective men. But, this difference was not observed in schizophrenic and schizoaffective women. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that differential diagnosis of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder can be made with emphasis on the emotional content of memories, especially in men.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK