Results: Administration 40 mg/day of atorvastatin significantly reduced the mean RASS score and increased delirium-free days at both morning and afternoon time points compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Administration of atorvastatin had a significant positive effect on delirium status in patients admitted to the ICU.

Background and Aim: Adolescents with hearing loss face many communication problems and challenges due to their hearing impairment. This study aimed to investigate the effect of psychodrama on communication skills of adolescents with hearing loss. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest/posttest design using a control group. The study population consists of all adolescents with hearing loss aged 12–15 years studying at Naghme School for the Deaf in Yazd, Iran. A total of 24 adolescents were selected using a purposive sampling technique and were randomly assigned into groups of control (n=12) and intervention (n=12). The intervention group received psychodrama at nine sessions of 90 minutes, while the control group received no treatment. The Queendom Communication Skills Test (QCST) was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Psychodrama can improve communication skills of adolescents with hearing loss, which is verbal communication. Conclusion: The mean and standard deviation of the pretest QCST score was 78.75±9.4 for the intervention group. After the treatment, the QCST scores was 105.08±6.28 for the intervention group. The results of ANCOVA showed an improvement in Queendom Communication Skills Test scores of adolescents after intervention (p<0.001). Keywords: Hearing loss; communication skills; psychodrama

Background and Aim: One of the common behavioral disorders of hearing-impaired child­ren is aggressive behavior, which can affect soc­ial adjustment in their adolescence. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of group counseling based on problem-solving on aggression and social adjustment of hearing-impaired students. Methods: This study is quasi-experimental with pretest posttest design and a control group. The study population was all adolescents with hear­ing impairment referred to Yazd Speech The­rapy Centers, Yazd City, Iran. A total of 30 stu­dents were selected from the referred hearing-impaired students with high aggression and low social adjustment. Then they were randomly assigned into control (n = 15) and experimental (n = 15) groups. The study instruments were the California social behavior and Buss and Perry aggression inventory. The group couns­eling based on problem-solving intervention consisted of 7 one-hour sessions, presented for the experimental group. We analyzed the obtai­ned data by repeated measures analysis of cova­riance. Results: Group therapy based on problem-solving can reduce aggression (p < 0.001) and increase social adjustment (p = 0.04). Conclusion: The professionals in this field are recommended to use group therapy based on problem-solving.

Background and Aim: Reading is not only a fundamental skill in learning but also an imp­ortant channel in dealing with the outside world. However, hearing impairment affects linguistic growth, including speaking and reading; deve­lopment of understanding; and academic achi­evement. The purpose of this study was to inv­estigate the effect of phonological awareness training on improving phonological reading and awareness in primary school children with hea­ring impairment. Methods: The present study has a quasi-experi­mental design. The research was conducted as pretest, intervention and posttest. A total of 20 children with moderate to severe hearing loss were enrolled in the experimental group and 20 subjects in another group as the control. Rea­ding and dyslexia test (NEMA) was used to ass­ess reading improvement and phonological awa­reness was assessed by the phonological aware­ness questionnaire. The data normality was che­cked by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and non-parametric Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U test were used to evaluate non-parametric data. Results: Based on the results, after teaching the phonological awareness strategies to the experi­mental group, their reading and phonological awareness scores increased significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05). Also the results show higher phonological awareness scores in girls. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that improvement of phonological awareness in children with hearing loss can improve and res­olve their reading performance and problems.