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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the psychological interventions of human interactions, complexity of the human brain, and behavioral interventions.

A 29-year-old woman with schizophrenia introduced for application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for refractory visual hallucinations. Following inhibitory rTMS on visual cortex she reported significant reduction in severity and simplification of complexity of hallucinations, which lasted for three months. rTMS can be considered as a possibly potent treatment for visual hallucinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Neuropsychiatric Consequences of Deep Brain Stimulation in Patients with Chronic Movement Disorder" by Seyed Kazem Malakouti, Seyed Reza Mahdavi, and colleagues that was published in the previous issue.

Objective: Electroconvulsive therapy is still a favorable method in some critical psychiatric cases after about 8 decades of its introduction. The most adverse effect of the method is the cognitive decline that affects up to 75% of patients. Therefore, getting familiar with its patterns and interfering factors may lead to the minimizing of the adverse consequences. Methodology: Seventy eight patients were chosen for ECT and entered the study through considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Mini Mental Status Examination was conducted 4 times before the protocol, and after the first, third and sixth sessions. The scores of this inventory and its four subtests were assessed during the protocol using the repeated measures ANOVA. In addition, the probable correlations among the scores, gender, age, and diagnoses were evaluated. Results: Although an overall significant cognitive decline was noticed during the sessions, none of the subtests could prove the significance separately. The attention and calculation subtest, and the orientation and recall subtest showed a reductive trend while the scores of registration followed a mild rising pattern. The results were independent of the variables of age, gender, and diagnoses. The most important result showed a transient amelioration of the cognitive status after the third session that turned into a final reduction. Conclusion: The cognitive decline shown by MMSE and its subtests (except the registration) is compatible with previous studies. Besides, the transient cognitive improvement after the third session could be explained by the initiation of the therapeutic effects and the remission of the disorder-induced cognitive decline before the appearance of the adverse cognitive consequences of ECT. The cognitive decline is more severe in females, probably due to the greater number of schizophrenics among male samples who suffer from a prior disorder-induced cognitive destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]