Objective Bipolar Disorder (BD) is one of the most common mental disorders associated with depressive symptoms and impairment in executive functions such as response inhibition. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of medication therapy combined with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on depression and response inhibition of patients with BD. Method This is a double-blinded randomized clinical trial with pretest, posttest, and follow-up design. Participants were 30 patients with BD randomly assigned to two groups of Medication+tDCS (n = 15, receiving medications plus tDCS with 2 mA intensity over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 10 days, two sessions per day each for 20 min) and Medication (n = 15, receiving mood stabilizers including 2–5 tables of 300 mg (mg) lithium, 200 mg sodium valproate, and 200 mg carbamazepine two times per day). Pretest, posttest and 3-month follow-up assessments were the 21-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and a Go/No-Go test. Collected data were analyzed in SPSS v.20 software. Results The mean HDRS score in both groups was reduced after both interventional techniques, where the group received combined therapy showed more reduction (P < 0.01), although their effects were not maintained after 3 months. In examining response inhibition variable, only the combined therapy could reduce the commission error of patients under a go/no-go task (p < 0.05), but its effect was not maintained after 3 months. There was no significant difference in the group received medication therapy alone. Conclusion Medication in combination with tDCS can reduce the depressive symptoms and improve the response inhibition ability of people with BD. Trial registration This study was registred by Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (Parallel, ID: IRCT20191229045931N1, Registration date: 24/08/2020).

ObjectiveBipolar disorder is one of the most destructive psychiatric disorders that leads to many psycho-social problems in patients, besides, the presence of impulsivity doubles this dysfunction and imposes irreparable consequences on the patient. So, in this study we aimed to comparison of pharmacotherapy and combined pharmacotherapy with Transcranial Direct Current Stimuli action (tDCS) in reduction of impulsivity in patients with bipolar disorder type I.MethodThe present study was a clinical trial with pre-test, post-test and a 3-month follow-up period. A sample of 30 patients with bipolar disorder type I was selected by purposive sampling and randomly assigned to two groups (pharmacotherapy and combined pharmacotherapy with tDCS). The tDCS protocol was performed for 10 sessions of 20 minutes for the combined group [F3 F4]. Barret Impulsivity Scale (BIS) was presented in three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software. Analysis of covariance tests were used to analyze the data.ResultsThe results showed that the effect of the between-subject factor was significant for the total score (partial ƞ2 = 0.32, p<0.05) cognitive impulsivity (partial ƞ2 = 0.31, p<0.05), motor impulsivity (partial ƞ2 = 0.18, p<0.05), nonplanning (partial ƞ2 = 0.16, p<0.05), Also, the investigation of impulsivity components also shows that there is a significant difference between combined and pharmacotherapy groups.ConclusionCombined treatment proved to be more effective in the treatment of patients suffering from bipolar disorder type I than separate medication. It can probably be used as a supplementary psychiatric medication, but this improvement but this improvement is not synonymous with stopping the use of psychiatric drugs.

Objective This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of medication therapy combined with transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in improving problem-solving and emotion regulation abilities of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) type I. Methods This is a randomized clinical trial conducted on 30 patients with BD I, randomly assigned into two groups of Medication (n = 15, receiving mood stabilizers including 2−5 tablets of lithium 300 mg, sodium valproate 200 mg, and carbamazepine 200 mg) and Medication + tDCS (n = 15, receiving mood stabilizers plus tDCS with 2 mA intensity over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 10 days, two sessions per day each for 20 minutes). The Tower of London (TOL) test and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were used for assessments before, immediately, and 3 months after interventions. Results There was a significant difference between groups in total ERQ ( p = 0.001) and its cognitive reappraisal domain ( p = 0.000) which were increased, but the difference was not significant in its expressive suppression domain ( p > 0.05). After 3 months, their level decreased. In examining problem-solving variable, the combined therapy could significantly reduce only the total number of errors under TOL test ( p = 0.00), but it remained unchanged after 3 months. Conclusion Medication therapy plus tDCS is effective in improving problem-solving and emotional regulation (cognitive reappraisal) skills of patients with BD I.

Introduction: Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor characterized by a negative reaction at an emotional, cognitive, and behavioral level to uncertain situations. Aim: The current study investigates the factor structure, reliability, and convergent validity of the Iranian version of the intolerance of uncertainty scale-12 and its predictive role in anxiety, depression, and contrast avoidance (CA). Method: This is a cross-sectional, psychometric study. Two large samples (N1=1210, N2=228) were collected with the convenience sampling method from three university students in Zanjan city (i.e., University of Medical Sciences, Azad University, and Payame Noor University) who were studying from February to July 2020. Data were collected using CAQ-GE, BAI, BDI-II, GAD-7 and IUS-12. The data were analyzed with Mplus 7.4, Amos 24, and SPSS 26 software. Results: EFA and CFA supported the two-factor model for IUS-12. In addition, the results indicated that the IUS-12 has an excellent convergent validity (p<0.01) and an acceptable internal consistency (α=0.89). Regression analysis results confirmed the predictive role of IUS-12 in predicting anxiety and depression and pointed out the possible transdiagnostic nature of the CA. Conclusion: Iranian version of IUS-12 showed good psychometric properties and a robust two-factor structure. Therefore, using it in predicting constructs related to anxiety and depression could help us extend our knowledge of the underlying factors of psychiatric disorders.

ObjectiveBipolar Disorder (BD) is one of the most common mental disorders associated with depressive symptoms and impairment in executive functions such as response inhibition. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of medication therapy combined with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on depression and response inhibition of patients with BD.MethodThis is a clinical trial with pretest, posttest, and follow-up design. Participants were 30 patients with BD randomly assigned to two groups of Medication + tDCS (n = 15, receiving medications plus tDCS with 2 mA intensity over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 10 days, two sessions per day each for 20 min) and Mediaction (n = 15, receiving mood stabilizers including 300 mg lithium, 200 mg sodium valproate, and 200 mg carbamazepine two times per day). Pretest, posttest and 3-month follow-up assessments were the 21-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and a go/no-go test. Collected data were analyzed in SPSS v.20 software.ResultsThe mean HDRS score in both groups was reduced after both interventional techniques, where the group received combined therapy showed more reduction (P < 0.01), although their effects were not maintained after 3 months. In examining response inhibition variable, only the combined therapy could reduce the commission error of patients under a go/no-go task (p < 0.05), but its effect was not stable; there was no significant difference in the group recieved medication therapy alone.ConclusionMedication in combination with tDCS can reduce the depressive symptoms and improve the response inhibition ability of people with BD.