• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1066-1071
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• 2010

To evaluate the effect of horticultural therapy (HT) on the emotional improvement of depressed patients, computer-based heart rate variability (HRV) was compared with self-report scale (SRS) known as existing subjective evaluation method. SRS included four test areas: mental stress scale (MSS), physical stress scale (PSS), Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), and Beck depression inventory (BDI). HRV was itemized into four parameters: standard deviation of the N-N intervals (SDNN), square root of mean squared difference of successive N-N intervals (RMSSD), total power (TP), and low-frequency/high-frequency ratio (LF/HF ratio). Thirty patients with depression at the same mental hospital participated in this study. 15 patients of the treatment group received HT once a week for three months, but the control group did not during the same period. As a result, the emotional improvement in treatment group was clearly identified through HRV as well as SRS. The significant difference was shown at three test areas (MSS, BAI, and BDI, $p$ < 0.001) in SRS and at one parameter (total power, $p$ < 0.05) in HRV. There was noticeable increase in SDNN, RMSSD, and LF/HF ratio in treatment group after HT activity, but no significant difference. Although all parameters of HRV did not show significance, the possibility of HRV as an objective evaluation method to HT was recognized in this study. These results also implied that HT was efficient in the mental and physical regeneration of the depressed patients in both subjective and objective evaluation methods.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.164-171
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• 2018

Objectives : Depression is a common mental illness and a major cause of suicide. Although serum lipids have been associated with depression and suicide, there has been much debate. In this study, we investigated the relationship between depression, suicide, and serum lipids in patients admitted with depressed mood. Methods : A total of 134 subjects were divided into 86 non-suicide patients and 48 suicide attempters. The serum lipid levels and sub-scores of the Korean Symptom Checklist-95 (KSCL95) were compared. We also investigated the relationship between serum lipids and sub-scores of KSCL95 and investigated whether serum lipids were risk factors for suicide attempts. Results : There was no difference in serum lipids between the two groups. Among the sub-items of KSCL95, obsession was higher in non-suicide group. Triglyceride showed positive correlations with anxiety, phobic anxiety, agoraphobia, schizophrenia, and self-regulation problem. High triglyceride was a risk factor for suicide attempts. Conclusions : Triglyceride is associated with depression, anxiety, and self - regulation, and high serum triglyceride levels may be a risk factor for suicide attempts.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 1994

Childhood depression was not officially accepted as a separate diagnosis until 20-25years ago. Although DSM-III R criteria gave us a starting point and are gaining acceptances as a useful tool for diagnosing childhood depression recently, many professionals feel that additional modifications are needed to better reflect the developmental aspects of children. And because children are relatively poor in expressing their moods or feelings due to weak reality sence and/or cognitive and linguistic limitations, the author too carefully suggest that developmental perspectives of children should be considered in diagnosing childhood depression. Little is known about the extent to which childhood depression precedes adult depression and persists into adult life and about the impact of it on the personality formation. Some evidences that childhood depressive symtoms can be quite enduring make it important to make an early diagnosis and treatment.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.124-133
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• 1999

Objective : Postpartum depression(PPD) was known to be caused by many factors including various psychosocial risk factors. This study was performed to identify the psychosocial risk factors for ppd, preliminarily in Korea. Methods : A group of 119 postpartum women, each of whom was at 6 to 8 weeks after delivery was identified at the time when they visited to the child health clinic or postnatal check-up clinic. The risk factors were surveyed by the self-reported questionnaire. The items of questionnaire were consisted of known risk factors in other studies and other possible stress-related factors. PPD was assessed by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale(EPDS) and the degree of postpartum depression was determined by its score. Results : 16 women(13.45%) in the high risk group were diagnosed as PPD among the 119 women. Risk factors including past experience of depressive symptoms and low level of marital satisfaction were founded more frequently in women in the high risk group than in the low risk group. The score of EPDS was significantly high in the group who experienced depressive symptoms in the past, anxiety or depression during pregnancy, stressful life event during the period of recent pregnancy and postpartum, and who had low level of marital satisfaction. There was a positive correlation between age and the score of EPDS. However, the postpartum depressive symptoms were not influenced by the level of education, job, retirement due to pregnancy and delivery, wanted or unwanted pregnancy, delivery method, feeding method, the hospitalization of infant, expected and real gender of infant. Conclusion : These results suggest that PPD is quite frequent at postpartum period. Various risk factors contribute to the development of PPD. If clinicians pay attention to the risk factors of PPD and give appropriate psychiatric intervention to the mothers during pregnancy and postpartum, it will be easy for the clinicians to recognize and treat PPD in the early stage.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2016

Objectives : The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale-Revised is a recently revised scale which has been reported as a valid tool for the assessment of depressive symptoms. It encompasses cardinal symptoms of depression described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders, fourth edition. In this study, we assessed the reliability, validity and psychometric properties of the Korean version of the CESD-R(K-CESD-R). Methods : Forty-eight patients diagnosed as major depressive disorder, dysthymia, depressive disorder NOS according to the DSM-IV criteria using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and 48 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. They were assessed with K-CESD-R, K-MADRS, PHQ-9, KQIDS-SR, STAI to check cross-validation. Statistical analyses were performed using calculation of Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlation coefficient, Principal Component Analysis, ROC curve and optimal cut-off value. Results : The Cronbach's alpha of K-CESD-R was 0.98. The total score of K-CESD-R revealed significantly high correlations with those of K-MADRS, PHQ-9, KQIDS-SR(r=0.910, 0.966 and 0.920, p<0.001, respectively). Factor analysis showed two factors account for 76.29% of total variance. We suggested the optimal cut-off value of K-CESD-R as 13 according to analysis of the ROC curve which value sensitivity and specificity both equally. Conclusions : These Results showed that the K-CESD-R could be a reliable and valid scale to assess depressive symptoms. The K-CESD-R is expected as a useful and effective tool for screening and measuring depressive symptoms not only in outpatient clinic but also epidemiologic studies.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2005

Objectives : We have studied female patients with either alopecia areata or androgenetic alopecia to evaluate psychological aspects, such as anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and characteristic personalities. In addition, we tried to examine the differences in psychological characteristics between these two types of alopecia, where the alopecia areata has been cotroversial on the role of stress in its etiology and the androgenetic alopecia seems to be more influeced by genetic and biological factors. Methods : All participated patients were females with alopecia for more than 1 you. Among them, 52 were with alopecia areata and 33 were with androgenetic alopecia. They were compared with 54 normal healthy controls by using MMPI, BDI, STAI-S, STAI-T, and TAS-20K. Results The average scores of F, Hs, D, Pd, Pa, Sc, Si in MMPI of alopecia groups were significantly higher than that of normal controls, and the androgenetic alopecia group had highest Hy and Pt scores. The average scores of BDI, STAI-S, and STAI-T in alopecia groups were higher than the normal controls. 94.2% of alopecia areata patients and 97.0% of androgenetic alopecia patients had severe depression, who scored higher than 23 in BDI. In TAS-20K, the average total scores of alopecia groups were higher than the normal control group, and the average Factor 3 score in androgentic alopecia was higher than the other groups. The alopecia groups scored higher than normal control group in STAI-S and STAI-T. Conclusion : Females with chronic alopecia were more depressed, had higher levels of anxiety, and more alexithymic than normal healthy females. In spite of arguments about etiological role of stress to alopecia, psychiatric interventions are needed for depression, and considerations for personality and psychological defense mechanism were needed in both types of alopecia.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2013

Objective : The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between trait anxiety and positive psychological factors. Methods : A total of 429 outpatients diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety disorders surveyed with questionnaires measuring socio-demographic, clinical, and positive psychological factors. The relationships of trait anxiety with clinical symptoms and positive psychological factors were evaluated. Results : Patients with low trait anxiety showed high optimism, gratitude, hope, spirituality and purpose in life. After adjusting age, scores of BDI and STAI-S, the results showed low trait anxiety was associated with high spirituality and purpose in life. Conclusion : The result revealed that trait anxiety had negative-relationship with spirituality and purpose in life in patients with depressive and/or anxiety disorders. Although trait anxiety was known as a general tendency which is stable, approach to trait anxiety by modulating these associated positive psychological factors would be newer approach of treatment to patients with depressive and/or anxiety disorders.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.395-402
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• 1997

인지능력 손상으로 인해 치매환자의 정상 언어 사용은 점차 감소되고 좌절감과 스트레스는 상승된다. 신체접촉은 비언어적 의사소통의 한 형태로서 치매환자를 지지하고 스트레스 상황에서 겪는 불안을 완화한다. Hollinger와 Buschmann은 1993년 신체 접촉 모형을 개발하였으며, 그 모형을 적용하여 신체접촉 인지도와 우울과의 관계와 신체 접촉의 우울증감소 효과를 정상 노인과 우울증 노인을 대상으로 연구했다. 그러나, 모형을 치매환자 연구에 적용시켜 검토한 연구는 언다. 본 연구의 목적은 신체 접촉 모형을 비평 분석하는 것이다. 또한, 분석을 기초로 하여 모형을 치매 환자 연구에 적용하도록 변형시켰다. 치매 환자의 인지, 언어 능력은 손상되었지만, 환경에 반응하는 감정과 접촉 감각은 유지되고 있다는 것은 신체 접촉 모형을 치매환자에게 적용할 때 반드시 고려해야 할 점이다. 개인의 문화 차이는 신체 접촉에 대한 인지와 반응에 영향을 준다. 따라서, 연구대상자 선택시 대상자가 신체 접촉을 긍정적으로 받아들이고 있는지를 확인해야 할 것이다. 대상자는 인지 능력 손상으로 면담이나 질문지에 적당히 반응할 수 없으므로 연구시 관찰 방법의 이용을 제언한다.

• 건강소식
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.26-27
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• 2012

아무런 징조도 없이 갑자기 닥쳐온 극심한 불안과 공포를 겪은 적이 있는가? 최근 TV 프로그램에서 차태현, 김하늘, 김혜수, 이경규, 양현석 등 인기스타들이 '공황장애'를 고백해 눈길을 끌었다. 극심한 스트레스와 우울증으로부터 발병한다는 공황장애는 이제 더 이상 낯설지 않은 병이 되었다.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2004

Objectives: Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous, chronic, progressive disease characterized by hyperglycemia and abnormality in protein, carbohydrate, fat metabolism. Recent studies have reorted two times prevalence of depression in individuals with diabetes compared to individuals without diabetics. This study was designed to investigate glycemic controls, anxiety, alexithymia, stress responses between depressed diabetic patients and non-depressed diabetic patients. Methods The subjects were 60 diabetic patients(mean age : $50.3{\pm}9.7$ years, 31 men and 29 women) who were confirmed to have diabetes depending on the laboratory findings as welt as clinical symptoms at the St. Vincent Hospital Diabetes Clinic, from Mar. 2004 to Sep. 2004. Laboratory test including, blood chemistry. glycated hemoglobin, urinalysis for proteinuria and Korean version of Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), State and Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale(TAS) and Stress Response Inventory(SRI) were used for assessment. Based on BDI scores, all diabetics were divided into 13 depressed-diabetics group(above 20 point) and 47 non-depressed group(below 20 point). We compared demographic data. glycemic controls, STAI, TAS and SRI scores between two groups by independent t-test. Results : 1) Depressed diabetic groups were 13(mean age : $55.4{\pm}7.2$ years, 7 men and 6 women) and non depressed groups were 47(mean age $48.9{\pm}9.8$ years, 24 men and 23 women). In depressed diabetics, compared with non-depressed group, manifested aged(p=0.031), but other demographic data showed no difference between two groups. 2) No significant differences were noted in FBS, PP2h, Hb A1C, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, SGOT/SGPT, BUN levels between depressed and non-depressed groups. But, blood creatine levels of depressed group were significantly increased than non-depressed group(p=0.026). 3) No significant differences were found in the score of STAI, STAI-S, STAI-T, TAS between depressed and non-depressed groups. 4) The SRI scores of depressed groups were significantly higher than non-depressed groups$(59.7{\pm}24.9\;vs.\;31.5{\pm}22.0)(p=0.000)$. Conclusion : The above results suggest that depressed diabetic patients are have more stress responses and higher blood creatine levels. However, there were no differences in laboratory data related to glycemic controls, and anxiety. alexithymia levels between two groups. We suggest that physicians should consider integrated approaches for psychiatric problems in the management of diabetes.