Background and Objectives: Failure to treat hypertension often leads to fatal complications; thus, there is an urgent need to develop and expand effective psychological interventions in this respect. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on depression and anxiety in patients with hypertension. Methods This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test and a control group design. In total, 24 patients with hypertension in Birjand city, Iran, in the second half of 2020 participated in this research. The study subjects were selected from the eligible subjects who volunteered to participate in the study. Besides, they were chosen by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (n=12/group). The experimental group participated in eight ACT sessions developed by Hayes et al. (2011); however, the control group remained on the waiting list. Data collection tools were the Beck Depression Inventory -Second Edition (BDI-II) (2000) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI;Beck et al., 1988). The collected data were analyzed in SPSS using repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at the significance level of P=0.05. Results The current study results revealed that ACT was effective in reducing depression (P<0.01) and anxiety (P<0.01) in patients with hypertension; these results remained consistent until the follow-up step (P<0.01). Conclusion The obtained data indicated the effectiveness of ACT in reducing depression and anxiety in patients with hypertension. Thus, this intervention can be used as a complementary therapy to improve psychological problems in patients with hypertension.

Background and Objectives: The stress related to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be a risk factor for other psychological disorders in society. The present study aims to investigate the role of spiritual capital and mindfulness in predicting COVID-19-related stress in college students. Methods: This is a descriptive-correlational study. The study population consist of all male and female students of Farhangian University in Birjand, Iran during 2021-2022. Of these, 242 eligible students were selected using a web-based non-probabilistic sampling method. They completed the Spiritual Capital Scale of Golparvar et al. (2015), the Southampton Mindfulness Questionnaire of Chadwick et al. (2008), and the Corona Stress Scale of Salimi (2015). For data analysis, Pearson’s correlation test and multiple regression analysis were used in SPSS software, version 22. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The relationship between spiritual capital and COVID-19-related stress (r=-0.585, P<0.01), and between mindfulness and COVID-19-related stress (r=-0.4569, P<0.01) was negative and significant. The spiritual capital explained 34.2% of the variance and the mindfulness explained 19.9% of the variance in COVID-19-related stress. Conclusion: Spiritual capital and mindfulness can predict the COVID-19-related stress among college students. This indicates the need for planning to improve individual, social, and spiritual abilities of students during the pandemic.

Background and Objectives: Suicide is a serious issue, so it needs to be addressed. The purpose of this review study is to a Systematic Review on the prevalence and Causes of Suicide (Thoughts and Actions) In Iranian School and University Students. Materials and Methods:This study is a systematic review carried out in April 2022, using different search engines including SID, Magiran, Google Scholar, Sciencedirect, PubMed, Scopus, as well as the keywords "Suicide", "University", "Student", and their Persian equivalents in relation to Iranian school and university students. 27 articles were reviewed. Results:The results of this study revealed that suicide attempt in students varied from 6 to 8.3% and suicidal ideation ranged from 2.8 to 7.49%. The most important causes of suicide were mental disorders, depression, low resilience, loneliness, hopelessness, family factors, weakness of religious beliefs, and stressors. Conclusion: Psychological interventions include religion-based and metacognitive therapy, resilience and positive thinking skills training, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and positive psychology training. Regular screening and psychological interventions can be used to prevent, treat, and reduce suicidal ideation among students.