فرهاد آوخ کیسمی

Serving in military service is associated with opportunities and challenges. One of the most important concerns of families and their commanders is preventing any serious harm and maintaining the physical and mental health of soldiers.

The present study aimed to investigate the causes of escape from military service.

The present study is a qualitative study of the Grand Theory whose research community includes all soldiers with a history of escaping from military service. Based on purposive sampling, 53 soldiers were interviewed until theoretical data saturation. The data collection tool was semi-structured interviews. Other sources included printed and electronic library resources with data from valid and available scientific databases.

Based on the answers provided by the interviewees, 101 concepts were extracted from the interviews in the open coding stage. After analyzing and categorizing the concepts, 20 central codes and finally three selected codes including “personality causes”, “external organizational causes” and “internal organizational causes,” were obtained.

By identifying the compound causes of desertion, policymakers can put reforms in training, support, and administration on the agenda to reduce the trend of high-risk behaviors such as escaping.

Early and early detection of psychological distress and ensuring the psychological health levels of military personnel using screening tools is of great importance in increasing the performance and combat capability of the armed forces. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Iranian version of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-38) in military personnel and to compile a lie detector scale for it.

The present study was a descriptive and correlational psychometric design. The statistical population included all the employees of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, from which 420 people were selected by cluster sampling. The Mental Health Inventory (MHI-38), the Beck Anxiety Scale (BAI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDA-II) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) were used to collect data. Face validity and internal consistency were assessed using qualitative method and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient was also used to evaluate the reliability of retest, concurrent validity, divergent validity and convergent validity.

The internal consistency values of the Cronbach's alpha mental health checklist for well-being and psychological distress and the whole scale were 0.79, 0.80 and 0.81, respectively. Also, the reliability coefficient of the retest was calculated to be 0.79, 0.76 and 0.75, respectively. Simultaneous validity of the mental health inventory was -0.55 for psychological well-being and 0.65 for psychological helplessness. Also, divergent validity for well-being and psychological helplessness was -0.59 and -0.64, respectively, and convergent validity was 0.65 and 0.51, respectively. All coefficients were significant at the level of P<0.01.

Based on the results of this study, it can be said that the mental health inventory has good reliability and validity and can be used for research and clinical purposes in the field of mental health of the military.

Mental disorders are one of most common reason for early separation of soldiers from the military service. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relation of self-mutilation and personality disorder among soldiers. In this case-control study, 30 soldiers referred to an army psychiatric hospital (cases) and 30 soldiers referred to another military health center (controls) were evaluated for personality disorders by clinical interviews on the basis of DSM-IV criteria. The frequency of self-mutilation and personality disorders were then analyzed by SPSS statistical software. Totally, 63.3% of case group and 6.7% of control group had history of self-mutilation. The frequency of personality disorders was 56.7% and 20% in cases and controls, respectively. In case group, 78.9% and 18.2% of patients, respectively, with and without a history of self-mutilation, had cluster B personality disorder (P=0.002). This difference remain significant among control group (P=0.003). Regarding the relationship between self-mutilation with cluster B personality and impulsivity of these personalities, detection and preventive treatment of patients or exempt in severe cases prior to entering military service may be useful for reducing the incidence of self-mutilation and suicide.

Achieving to peak performance and reaction time (RT) is the most important aim of artists, athletes, military personnel and every one whose job needs delicacy. Neurofeedback is one of the new ways which is used by sport psychologist in order to attaining the peak performance. This study aimed to investigate the influence of (sensori motor rhythm: 12-15 Hz) SMR neurofeedback training on peak performance and RT of individuals with difficult jobs. The research project was experimental and 36 volunteers were randomly divided in three groups, experimental group (real neurofeedback), placebo (virtual neurofeedback) and control group. As far as our volunteers were from various groups, they were put in a same situation (playing table tennis) for evaluating their peak performance. All groups were evaluated in table tennis performance and RT. Then, the experimental intervention was performed. All participating groups were trained for table tennis for 20 sessions and the experimental group as well as the placebo got the neurofeedback training and table tennis training simultaneously. All three groups participated in the post-test in the middle and at the end of the study. All the data were analyzed by repeated measurements, multivariate/ analysis of variance by subtracting the pre-test post-test in order to examine the hypothesis. Results of data analysis have shown that SMR training influenced on performance and RT of participants in a special task. Neurofeedback training can improve trainers’ performance. For this reason, it can be used for achieving peak performance and decrease RT in athletes.