• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.68-73
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore insomniac demographic characteristics and the type of consultation provided to hospitalized patients asked to the Department of Psychiatry for insomnia and to compare patient insomnia characteristics by consultation type. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of 4,966 patients who were hospitalized from August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2011 that received consultation in the Department of Psychiatry. Among them, 236 patients were referred for insomnia. We compared the differences in demographic characteristics and types of consultation between the insomnia patient group and other patient group. We also compared the difference between demographic characteristics and type of consultation by dividing total subjects into 'with reconsultation' and 'without reconsultation' groups. Results: Our results came from the analysis of 9,689 consecutive consultation requests. There were 4,966 patients that participated in the study over 6 years and 6 months. The overall consultation rate was 3.3% of all admissions and insomnia patients comprised 4.8% of those. The ratio of re-consultation for insomnia was 27.5%. There was no significant difference in mean age between the insomnia 'with reconsultation group' and the insomnia 'without reconsultation group', but the 'with reconsultation' group had significantly more male patients and medical patients than the 'without re-consultation' group. For insomnia patients, consultation types were in the order of Mending request (51.3%), Paralle request (36.6%), Complementary request (9.0%) and this composition differed from that of total admission patients. Conclusion: Hospitalized patients referred for insomnia showed a higher proportion of male patients, lower rates of re-consultation compared with other patients, and most of these were for secondary insomnia. Each doctor should be aware of the possibility of inpatient insomnia, conduct positive assessments and referrals as necessary, and psychiatrists who might be asked for consultation need to prepare an active intervention with initial diagnosis and treatment, as well as recommendations for the timing of reconsultation.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.74-81
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• 2018

Objectives: Insomnia is one of the major concerns in the elderly population. Cognitive behavioral treatment for insomnia is the first line treatment option, but there are some limitations including time and cost burdens and the requirement for sufficient cognitive resources to obtain a proper treatment effect. The Brief intervention for insomnia (BII) is a treatment that focuses on behavioral aspects of insomnia in primary care practices. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of BII in community-dwelling older adults. Methods: A total of 47 older adults with insomnia were enrolled from community centers between May 2016 and January 2018. They participated in the BII program for three weeks. We gathered sleep-related participant information with using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), the Sleep hygiene index, and a sleep diary. Clinical efficacy was evaluated by comparing total sleep time (TST), sleep latency (SL), waking after sleep onset (WASO), and sleep efficiency (SE) before and after the treatment. Results: There was significant improvement in sleep-related features after BII. Global score and sleep quality from the PSQI, freshness, and WASO from the sleep diary showed statistically significant improvement. Conclusion: We found BII showed positive clinical efficacy in community dwelling older adults, especially from the perspective of subjective sleep quality and WASO. This finding implies that BII can be effectively applied for the managment of elderly insomnia patients in a community setting.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2018

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the level of distress using the distress thermometer (DT) and the factors associated with distress in postoperative breast cancer (BC) patients. Methods : DT and WHOQOL-BREF (World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version) along with sociodemographic variables were assessed in patients undergoing surgery for their first treatment of BC within one week postoperatively. The distress group consisted of participants with a DT score ${\geq}4$. The prevalence and associative factors of distress were examined by descriptive, univariable, and logistic regression analysis. Results : Three hundred seven women were recruited, and 264 subjects were finally analyzed. A total of 173 (65.5%) were classified into the distress group. The distress group showed significantly younger age (p=0.045), living without a spouse (p=0.032), and worse quality of life (QOL) as measured by overall QOL (p=0.009), general health (p=0.005), physical health domain (p<0.000), and psychological health domain (p=0.002). The logistic regression analysis showed that patients aged 40-49 years were more likely to experience distress than those aged ${\geq}60years$ (Odds ratios [OR]=2.992, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.241-7.215). Moreover, the WHOQOL-BREF physical health domain was a predictive factor of distress (OR=0.777, 95% CI 0.692-0.873). Conclusions : A substantial proportion of patients are experiencing significant distress after BC surgery. It would be expected that distress management, especially in the middle-aged patients and in the domain of physical QOL (e.g., pain, insomnia, fatigue), from the early BC treatment stage might reduce chronic distress.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.536-546
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• 2009

This study was done to investigate the effect of stress on appetite and eating habits, and other health-related behaviors. The subjects of this study consisted of 188 males and 224 females in Ulsan area. The results were as follows: When stressed, 56% (n = 231) of the subjects experienced a change in appetite and of these, 32% (n = 132) experienced an increased appetite. Stress-induced eating may be one factor contributing to the development of obesity. There was a gender-specific response to stress in which women are more likely to use food to deal with stress, whereas men are more likely to use alcohol consumption or smoking. It was found that types of stressors were individual (52.9%), social (50.7%), family relations (34.5%), work demands (34.2%) and physical environment (32.3%). Stress-induced symptoms of the subjects were anxiety (38.3%), headache (36.7%) and neck or shoulder aches (36.2%), and females experienced those symptoms more than males. Those older than 50 years had a higher eating habit score and lower stress score compared with younger subjects. There were significant differences between sex, age, occupation, family type, BMI, exercise, sleeping hours and eating habits or stress level. This study may be helpful in advancing findings in this area to better provide health professionals with appropriate counseling tools to improve the health of all individuals.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.139-150
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• 2012

Objectives : The puropse of this study was to report the availability of Hyeongsang diagnosis compensating for visceral pattern identification in applying Sa-am acupuncture therapy. Methods : Eight cases was presented to substantiate the above. Results : According to the characteristic diagnostic method of Hyeongsang medicine by feature such as face, ears, eyes, nose and mouth shape, There are 8 pattern differentiations, including essence family, Qi family, spirit family, blood family, fish type, bird type, beast(running) type and crust(crustacea) type which are correlated with essence deficiency, heat harassing the heart spirit, Qi stagnation, blood stasis, kidney essence deficiency, intense heart fire, liver blood deficiency and lung Qi deficiency in the established visceral pattern identification, respectively. Eight patients was diagnosed by the above Hyeongsang 8 pattern differentiations, of whom Sinjeonggyeok(kidney reinforcing prescription) was applied to a patient with fish type and essence family to nourish kidney essence, and Giul prescription(Qi stagnation prescription) was given to a patient with Qi family for regulating Qi, and Sanghwa priscription(ministerial fire prescription) was delivered to a patient with Spirit family to clear the heart fire and tranquilize, and Sojangjeonggyeok(small intestine reinforcing prescription) was used for a patient with blood family to nourish blood and remove blood stasis, and Sinjeonggyeok(kidney reinforcing prescription), Simhangyeok(heart heat clearing prescription), Ganjeonggyeok(liver reinforcing prescription) and Pyejeonggyeok(lung reinforcing prescription) were utilized for fish type, bird type, beast(running) type and crust(crustacea) type respectively to reinforce the relevant visceral function. Conclusions : It was suggested that characteristic diagnostic method of Hyeongsang medicine should be helpful for enhancing the accuracy of the established visceral pattern identification, applying Sa-am acupuncture therapy more appropriately.