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Background & Objective: Examinations are among the most important stressors in schools and universities that result to psycho physiological outcomes but these effects on children has not been paid much attention. This study was done to determine the effect of stress of final examinations on the activation of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (change of salivary cortisol) and autonomous nervous system (pulse rate) in children. Materials & Methods: A total of 100 children (50 boys, 50 girls) in 5th grade aged less than 12 years from two primary schools of five educational district in Tehran were chosen randomly. The subjects completed Adolescent’s Eysenck personality inventory. Physical and mental health was reviewed the medical history, clinical examinations and after controlling sleep, food, drug and sport variables, salivary samples and pulse rates were taken five times as follows: once a week before and then three times through mathematics, history and science exams and once a week after passing the exams at 9 to 10 am .Salivary cortisol samples were analysed by ELISA method. Results: Cortisol levels increased significantly during examinations in compare with cortisol levels before and after examinations. Depending to sex, psychoticism, neuroticism and extroversion –introversion variables, only the effect of psychoticism and extroversion –introversion are statistically significant (P<0.05). Also repeated analysis of variance for pulse rate indicated the increase rate of later factor (P<0.05). Conclusion: Final examinations as a stressor resource increase salivary cortisol and pulse rates of children. Personality factors can modulate the effect of examinations on salivary cortisol. Sex also modulates pulse rates increasing during academic examinations.

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Background and Objective: Headache is one the most common compliant of patients and has different causes and the migraine and tension headaches are common. Personality is characteristics forming an individual distinctive manner. This study aimed to determine the frequency and association of different types of personality characteristics in patients with migraine and tension headaches. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was done on 160 (12 male and 148 female) subjects with chief complaint of headache whome referred to 5th Azar clinics of Gorgan, Iran during 2007-08. Subjects were selected by simple random sampling and were examined by either a neurologist or psychiatrist patient with diagnosis migraine either of or tension headache were included. Selected patients evaluated by short form of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Data were analyzed using SPSS-13 and Chi-Square test. Results: The mean age was 11.18±33.29 in women and 34.33±13.7 in men. 96 patients (60%) had tension headache and 64 (41.2%) had migraine. In tension headache, depressed personality (43.8%) and hysterical personality (16.4%) were more common but in migraine headache, depressed personality (48.9%) and paranoid personality (20%) were common but this difference was not significant. Conclusion: This study showed that there is no relation between personality characteristics with tension headach and migraine.

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Background and Objective: Gender differences in biobehavioral responses to environmental stressors and experience of psychological stress should be identified. This study was done to evaluate the changes of the level of salivary cortisol under psychological stress and its relationship with rumination and personality traits.

Methods: In this case-control study, for 45 medical students, The NEO Personality Inventory-Short Form and emotional control questionnaire (ECQ) were filed two months before the final examination. Saliva samples were taken from students in the non-stress (control) and examination stress conditions. Salivary cortisol levels were measured by ELISA method.

Results: Gender differences were not observed in the level of salivary cortisol under psychological stress. Significant difference was observed between the mean of salivary cortisol in the non-stress and under examination stress conditions. Positive correlation was found between traits of neuroticism (P<0.05) and rumination (P<0.05) with salivary cortisol as well as negative correlation between the traits openness to experience (P<0.05) and angery control (P<0.05) with salivary cortisol. Neuroticism, rumination and angery control may predict a substantial variance (32%) of salivary cortisol under exam stress.

Conclusion: Psychological stress leads to increase in the secretion of salivary cortisol unrelated to gender. Subjects with different personality traits are prone to cortisol responses to stress based on their particular character.

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Background and Objective: Postpartum depression has a negative effect on maternal health and adverse effect on psychological development of newborns. Also patterns and personality traits can also be associated with postpartum depression. This study aimed to determine the role of social support and Personality in the incidence of postpartum depression.
Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 200 mothers referred to health centers by available sampling method between 6 weeks to 6 months after delivery. Data were collected using a Questionnaire Personal Information, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS, 1987), NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI, 1985) and Social Support Questionnaire Philips (1977).
Results: Postpartum depression was observed in 49 (24.5%) of mothers. Neuroticism had the highest relationship with postpartum depression. The correlation coefficient of this variable with postpartum depression was 52% and this variable alone was 27% of the variance. There was a significant negative relationship between postpartum depression and social support (r= -0.027, P<0.01). There was a significant positive correlation between postpartum depression and neuroticism (r= 0.52, P<0.01).
Conclusion: This study showed that personality traits and social support are two important factors in relation to postpartum depression.

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Background and Objective: Among short-term therapies, psychoanalytic approaches use the therapeutic relationship more than any other approach as a context for change. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term object relation psychotherapy on interpersonal relationships, self-destruct behaviors and personality organization of patients with borderline personality disorder.
Methods: This clinical trial study was done on the 20 patients with borderline personality disorder who referred to medical clinics in Sari city in northern Iran during 2020. Patients were divided into two intervention and control groups by random sampling. Patients in interventional group were received short-term object relation psychotherapy in 16 individual sessions of 45 minutes once a week. The control group did not receive any intervention. Patients completed the structured clinical interview scales of First et al (SCID-II), the Bell’s object relations inventory (BORI), self-destruct questionnaire of Sharabaf et al and Kernberg’s inventory of personality organization (IPO).
Results: Scores of interpersonal relationships, self-destructive behaviors and personality organization were significantly reduced in interventional group in compared to control group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Short-term object relation psychotherapy is an effective therapy to reduce the symptoms of patients with borderline personality disorder.

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Background and Objective: Psoriasis is one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases. About 37 to 50% of patients report exacerbation of symptoms following psychological stress. This study we done to determine the frequency of personality disorders in psoriatic patients in north of Iran.
Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 128 psoriatic patients referred to the dermatology clinic of Sayyad Shirazi Hospital and private clinics in Gorgan, north of Iran during 2019. Firstly severity of psoriasis was determined based on the PASI score (PASI: Psoriasis Area and Severity Index). Then, personality disorders were assessed using the Millon MCMI-III multivariate questionnaire.
Results: The mean age of psoriasis patients was 40.84±12.91 years and the duration of the disease was 8.87±y7.62 ears.72.7% of patients were females. The prevalence of most personality disorders was histrionic (22.7%), depressive (6.3%) and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (3.1%), respectively. There was a significant relationship between histrionic personality disorder, which was the most common personality disorder, with disease severity, education level and type of treatment (P<0.05). There was significant relationship between depressive personality disorder and level of education, gender, occupation and ethnicity (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The most common personality disorder in psoriatic patients was histrionic personality disorder.

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Background and Objective: Factors involved in the formation of thoughts and suicide attempts with the complexity of social interactions and increasing the likelihood of its occurrence in different societies have led to a global effort to control and improve this social problem. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the role of personality traits in suicide attempts among patients referred to the emergency departments in Gorgan, Iran.
Methods: This case-control study was carried out on 80 individuals who attempted suicide and 80 healthy people who had been referred to emergency departments in Gorgan (Iran) in 2020. Demographic information was recorded and personality type was determined based on the NEO Personality Inventory.
Results: The prevalence of neurological disorders and previous history of suicide in the person and family of the patients who attempted suicide was significantly higher than that in the control subjects (P<0.05). Neuroticism was significantly more prevalent in patients who attempted suicide (P<0.05), but the tendency to extroversion, conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness in patients who attempted suicide was significantly lower compared with the control group.
Conclusion: Given the role of personality traits, especially neuroticism, in suicide attempts, attention to personality traits on suicidal behavior provides important data for improving the treatment.