Even experienced clinicians have difficulties in diagnosing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exactly, due to its diverse clinical features, which vary according to individuals, traumas, and various comorbid psychopathologies, and its related compensation issues. It is usually mandatory for clinicians and researchers to use screening and assessment tools when diagnosing and evaluating PTSD. To date, research has developed numerous PTSD screening and assessment tools ; therefore one of the cardinal issues is to select the best of the various tools, the one most suitable for the clinician's or researcher's purposes. This article reviews several currently-available subjective and objective instruments for the diagnosis and evaluation of PTSD and groups them according to whether they are Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-Correspondent Measures ; PTSD-Focused, Non-DSM-Correspondent Measures ; or Empirically Derived Measures. We present the instruments' psychometric properties and scoring methods and describe their merits and weak points, focusing on their practical usage.

Researchers consider obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to be an anxiety disorder, but it often shows comorbidity with other disorders in the affective spectrum. Epidemiological and clinical studies have shown a strong association between OCD and mood disorders. In addition, some reports show the patients with OCD have attentional-processing impairments regarding emotional information. However, research has not revealed the exact nature and degree to which OCD constitutes an affective problem. In this review, we discuss the affective aspects of OCD and the relationship between OCD and mood disorders.

Objective : This study compared the psychological stresses of depressed patients' families with those of schizophrenic patients' families. We investigated the influence of depressive patients' clinical features and their families' demographic characteristics on the families' depressive symptoms and stresses. Methods : Participants were 23 family members of depressed patients and 20 family members of schizophrenic patients. We measured the patients' clinical features (duration of illness, number of previous hospitalizations, and satisfaction with medication), and each family member's socioeconomic status and psychological characteristics (depressive mood, anxiety, family stress, and stress response), analyzing the data via independent t-test, chi-square test, and correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Results : The depressed patients' average clinical global impression (CGI) was significantly higher than that of the schizophrenic patients. The depressed patients' family members showed stress responses significantly higher than those of schizophrenic patients' family members. Furthermore, in depressed patients, frequency of hospitalization was positively correlated with family members' stat anxiety. For both patient types, family stress was positively correlated with the patient's severity of illness and the family's state anxiety, trait anxiety, and stress response ; socioeconomic status was positively correlated with the family's depressive symptoms ; the family's state anxiety positively correlated with the family's trait anxiety and stress response ; and the family's trait anxiety positively correlated with the family's stress response. Socioeconomic status predicted the family's depressive symptoms, and socioeconomic, illness severity and stress response predicted family stress. Conclusion : These findings suggest that both depressed patients' families and schizophrenic patients' families suffer from psychological stress. The study data also have important clinical implications, in that families of depressed patients need psychiatric intervention, as well as the patients themselves. In particular, family intervention should focus on psycho-education and stress coping strategies.

Objectives : Tic disorder is known to be a chronic neuro-behavioral disease, cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) strategies, like habit reversal training (HRT), are introducing recently. We report the effectiveness of HRT in Tourette disorder, which are very common in clinical settings. Methods : The DSM-IV clinical diagnosis applied by child psychiatrist. YGTSS, Kovac's children's depression inventory, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Abbreviated Conners' Rating Scales, Dupaul ADHD Rating Scales are used. Ultimately, totally 10 children were evaluated. Subject group are consist of 6 boys and 4 girls, and the mean age was $10.90{\pm}1.73$ years old. This study is treatment-refractory 10 patients (from 9-14 years old) though 1 years drug treatment and psychiatric consultation were taken. We administered 5 times of HRT for 4 weeks. Results and Conclusion : There were improvement of scores in Yale Global Tic Severity Scale, Clinical Global Improvement. Our observations indicate that HRT might be effective in the treatment of Tourette disorder.

Objective : Mismatch negativity (MMN) provides an electrophysiological index of an involuntary attention switching process. This study investigated MMN anomalies and their relationship to clinical variables in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Methods : Study participants were 29 OCD patients and 24 normal controls. We used a 128-channel EEG to measure MMN during a passive oddball paradigm. Then we assessed the correlations between MMN amplitudes and clinical measures. Results : The OCD patients exhibited significantly greater MMN amplitude compared to the controls. Also, the right frontal lobe MMN amplitudes correlated significantly to the OCD patients' Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale total scores (r=-0.520, p=0.005). Conclusion : These results suggest that MMN anomalies in OCD patients reflect a monitoring circuit dysfunction, raising the possibility that the OCD's pathophysiology includes glutamatergic dysfunction.

Objectives : This study investigated the influence of traumatic experience on the ego identity, self-esteem, and general psychopathology of adolescent North Korean refugees. Methods : The participants were 146 adolescents North Korean refugees who attended H High School for North Korean refugees. We divided the subjects into two groups according to the severity of their traumatic experience : the more-traumatic-experience group and the less-traumatic-experience group. Each group performed self-report assessments including an assessment to reveal demographic characteristics, the Traumatic Experiences Scale for North Korean Defectors, the Scale for Ego identity, the Scale for Self-esteem and the Symptom Check-90-Revision (SCL-90-R). Statistical analysis of t-test and multiple regression utilized SPSS 12.0 for Window for comparison between more-traumatic-experience group and less-traumatic-experience group. Results : The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder among adolescents North Korean refugees was 37%. The factor with the greatest influence on ego identity was length of time living in South Korea, while, for self-esteem the most influential factor was perception of health. The more-traumatic-experience group had lower self-esteem scores on some subscales of the Scale for Ego identity. They had higher scores on all SCL-90-R subscales than the less-traumatic-experience group. Conclusion : Adolescent North Korean refugees experienced high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder. The more traumatic-experience-group had lower self esteem and poorer ego identity and mental health than the less-traumatic-experience group.

본 연구는 이천시에 거주하는 65세 이상의 인구를 대상으로, 우울증의 유병률과 자살경향성, 우울증과 자살경향성에 영향을 미치는 위험요인을 살펴본 연구이다. 전체적으로 우울증의 유병률은 28% 정도로 파악되어 실제로 65세 이상의 연령대에서 상당수의 노인들이 임상적으로 의미 있는 우울증을 경험하고 있는 것으로 관찰되었다. 또한 자살경향성은 전체 조사대상자의 약 20%에서 자살생각, 자살의도, 자살계획, 자해의도, 자살시도 중 한 가지 이상을 지난 한 달 동안 경험했던 것으로 나타났다. 거주 형태별로 구분하여 비교 분석한 결과, 혼자 생활하거나 시설에서 생활하는 노인들에서 동거가족이 있는 노인들보다 우울증의 유병률이 높고, 증상도 심한 것으로 나타났으며, 이들에게서 자살경향성 역시 높은 것으로 파악되어 이들 고위험군에 대한 보다 집중적인 우울증의 조기 발견 및 자살예방사업이 필요할 것으로 판단되었다. 위험요인 분석에서는 고령, 시설거주, 낮은 사회적 지지 수준은 우울증의 위험요인으로, 독거생활, 시설거주, 낮은 사회적 지지 수준, 두통의 기왕력은 자살경향성의 위험요인인 것으로 파악되었다.

Objective : Depression is a significant and growing problem among college students. Depression contributes to numerous academic, social, and health problems, including suicide. This study surveyed depression awareness and the need for establishing a depression support program through Kyunghee University. Methods : We used the Kyunghee University Mail delivery system for college students to conduct this survey on depression and depression. Results : All of the students who responded to the survey, 41.86% reported that they had experienced depression. Among students experiencing depression, 27.27% experienced suicidal ideation, and 56.56% said they wanted to receive mental health counseling or treatment. All the respondents, 47.04% of respondents said they would to go to the external medical center, not school's internal counseling center of school, for such treatment. All the respondents, 73.75% said the student depression/suicide problem was serious. In addition, 71.34% of respondents required a depression support program. Conclusion : The university's depression support program needs to improve its accessibility by developing content focused on the early detection of, and improved awareness of, depression.

Objectives : Indirect contact with trauma may occur when a person empathically listens to detailed descriptions, exposing the person to intense emotional pain from trauma victims. Although less severe than direct trauma, indirectly traumatized persons may experience the same fear, rage, and despair as direct trauma victims. This phenomenon has been variously termed vicarious trauma, traumatic countertransference, burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress. Using a psychiatric symptoms questionnaires, this study investigated the effects of indirect exposure to co-worker's trauma on the mental health of firefighters who had not directly experienced traumatic events in the previous year. Methods : We administered self-report questionnaires, such as the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IESR) and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), to firefighters working at two fire stations in a metropolitan city. We analyzed 188 of 232 collected surveys, after excluding falsely entered data (28 cases) and questionnaires by directly-traumatized victims (16 cases). Results : Alcohol consumption and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, as determined by the AUDIT and IES-R, were significantly higher in the indirectly-traumatized group. The ratio of high-risk members scoring higher than 23 in IES-R was larger in the indirectly traumatized group, although this was not statistically significant. Conclusion : Alcohol consumption was significantly higher in the indirectly traumatized group. This group also included more members at high risk for PTSD. Further research, with a larger group of indirectly traumatized firefighters and ongoing investigation of PTSD development and other psychiatric symptoms, is needed.