Background & objectives: Childbirth is the most stressful event for the women both mentally and physically affecting their physiological and psychological indicators during labour. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of non-pharmacological methods of labor pain relief in mothers’ perceived stress conducted in Alavi hospital of Ardabil, 2013.

 Methods: In this double blind randomized controlled trial, 320 mothers were allocated into two groups by stratified block randomization . The intervention group (n=158) received continuous support throughout the labour process, positioning and movement, music, aromatherapy, showering andconsumption of a light diet or water.The control group received only a routine care. The perceived stress scale (PSS) was employed to collect data in three stages at the beginning of the active phase, before the intervention, six hours after birth and then eight weeks postpartum. The two groupswere compared using General Linear Model with controlling the baseline scores.

Results: There were 14 participants loss to follow-up. The mean of perceived stress score in the intervention group was significantly lower than the control group at 6 hours [adjusted mean difference: -1.0 (95% confidence interval: -0.01 to -1.9]. However, there was no difference between two groups in terms of perceived stress score at 8 weeks postpartum (p=0.692).

 Conclusion: Non-pharmacological methods of labor pain relief are an effective intervention for reducing perceived stress level in mothers during labor and therefore use of this intervention is recommended.

  Background & Objectives : Social phobia is one of the common anxiety disorders characterized by fear of social situations, shame and embarrassment in communicating with unfamiliar people. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in reducing anxiety and depression in students with social phobia .

  Methods: An experimental pretest-posttest with control group design was used to conduct the study. The population consists of all female students in Ardabil city, 2013-2014 academic years. Using a multiple-stage cluster sampling method, a representative sample consists of 400 students was selected for the study. Then, among the students those with social phobia (based on the cut-off point), 34 participants were randomly selected and divided into two groups of 17 people (one experimental group and one control group) . The participants in experimental group received acceptance and commitment therapy for 10 sessions of 90 minutes. The control group did not receive any intervention. Anxiety, depression and social phobia questionnaires were administered to the two groups before and after the intervention. Descriptive statistics and multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) were used for data analysis.

  Results: The results of data analysis showed that treatment based on acceptance and commitment therapy reduces anxiety, depression and social phobia of students in the experimental group compared with the control group (p<0.001) .

  Conclusion: The present study showed that acceptance and commitment therapy for students with social phobia can be used as a psychological intervention along with other intervention mechanisms.