• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 1994

In 1944 Hans Asperger reported odd bizzare 400 children who showed autism like clinical symptoms but had higher intelligence and relatively intact speech function. He named these child 'autistic psychopathy'. Since them there were many controversial views about this syndrome. Some regards Asperger syndrome as the high functioning autism variant or preschizophrenic childhood condition or childhood form of schizoid personality disorder. Though there were still many controversy, recently ICD-10, DSM-IV accepted Asperger's syndrome as a distinct subtype of pervasive developmental disorder. The authors reviewed the history and conceptual changes of Asperger syndrome and summarized the interesting recent research findings. In addition, the authors argue that this syndrome has some linkage with autism and schizoid personality disorder and proposed that these is disorders do have common defect in social instinctual development.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.227-234
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• 1999

An association of low total cholesterol in blood with psychiatric diseases and suicidal behavior has been suggested. As part of an attempt to further explore this relationship, we examine first, whether serum cholesterol levels in psychiatric patients with suicidal attempt would be lower than in non-suicidal psychiatric inpatients or normal controls, second, whether such significant difference of cholesterol levels would be present when the diagnostic groups are analyzed separately, third, whether low cholesterol level would be associated with a history of serious suicidal attempts, and finally, whether low cholesterol level in suicide attempters is a state or a trait marker. We determined the serum cholesterol levels in 231 patients admitted to an emergency room following an suicidal attempt, in the same numbers of age-, sex- and diagnosis- matched non-suicidal psychiatric controls, and in the same numbers of age-, sex matched normal controls. The seriousness of an attempt was divided into 5 grades according to the degree of the resulting medical injury. Total cholesterol levels in suicide attempters were significantly lower compared with both psychiatric and normal controls, when sex, age, and nutritional status (i.e., body mass index) were controlled for. This significant relationship was observed in major depressive disorders and personality disorders, but not in schizophrenia and bipolar type I disorders. The severity of suicide by a lowering of blood cholesterol was related to the magnitude of the cholesterol reduction. After treatment of their psychiatric ailments, the cholesterol levels in suicide attempters were significantly increased. This result suggests that low cholesterol level in psychiatric patients might be a potential biological marker of suicide risk. It is hypothesized that low cholesterol levels is associated with the suicide by modifying the serotonin metabolism, the production of interleukin-2 and melatonin metabolism in psychiatric patients.