• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.111-132
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• 2001

Depression in the medically ill is a common clinical problem that primary physicians and psychiatric consultants encounter. Treatment of such patients begins with a careful evaluation of the patient's medical and psychiatric conditions. The assessment of depression in the medical patients requires a multidimensional approach. Psychological instruments are also used as a method of assessment in these patients. First of all, what the therapists have to do is to find and remove organic causes. Psychosoical treatment includes dealing with the patient's resistance and despondency relevant to physical diseases. For biological treatment, it is important to select appropriate antidepressants. Therapists should be familiar with the side effects of the antidepressants as well as the patient's primary depressive symptoms, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the available agents. In addition, special attention should be paid to the potential for drug-illness and drug-drug interactions. Tricyclic antidepressants can be still effectively used for patients with pain disorder, although a variety of new antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), bupropion and venlafaxine could have more benefits in depression of the medically ill. However, electroconvulsive therapy can be recommended for refractory cases of depression in patients with medical illness.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.129-137
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• 1992

This article describes several clinical usefullness of the telephone in psychotherapy with adolescents through case analysis by Tolchin, and discussed various management problems and some practical guidelines for therapists planning to utilize telephone psychotherapy with adolescents through literature analysis. In general, most adolescent patients in regular treatment benefit from knowing that the therapist can be reached by phone and that their call will be returned that same day. The therapist's telephone availability helps the young patient to develope a positive working alliance. Telephone psychotherapy had it's first widespread application in crisis intervention and suicide prevention. It's current uses also include enhancement of self-control in cases of self-destructive adolescents, and management of anxious, depressive, or anorexic adolescents. In addition, such widely divergent modalities of treatment as follow up of patients discharged from a psychiatric hospital, alcoholic rehabilitation programs, drug hotlines, sex counselling group therapy for visually impaired elderly, control of separation anxiety in girls, resolution of fear on the mental disorders, and helpful modality to continue psychotherapy without geographic barrier during longer periods of separation with therapist are currently available via telephone. But telephone psychotherapy is generally not suitable for more self-defensive and introverted cases, more dependent chronic callers, silent cases, test callers. the cases of telephone scatologias, the cases of intellectualized discussion, of more dependent cases calling phone in order to get attention from therapist. Telephone psychotherapy for adolescents serves as an important and useful method in the therapeutic armamentarium for this most challenging and rewarding population.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.46-55
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• 2017

Objectives : Outpatient treatment orders refer to a mandatory social program in which mentally ill persons are ordered by the court to participate in specified outpatient treatment programs. This study aimed to investigate the factors that affect outpatient treatment orders and adherence to outpatient treatment in mental health patients. Methods : A survey on outpatient treatment orders and adherence to outpatient treatment was conducted on 60 psychiatrists between October and November 2016. The questionnaire items were drafted based on a literature review, and they were then evaluated by 3 psychiatrists and 1 law school professor before being finalized. Answers from the respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and the median, maximum, and minimum values of the effectiveness scores of outpatient treatment orders were calculated. Results : Among the 60 psychiatrists, 45(75.0%) were aware of outpatient treatment orders; however, only 2 out of the 45(4.0%) had actually used the program in the last 12 months. The subjective effectiveness was very low, with only 40 points out of 100. Furthermore, of the readmitted patients, 37.7% had received continued outpatient treatment, whereas 53.1% chose to quit the outpatient treatment programs, meaning that the number of dropouts was higher. Among the discharged patients, approximately two-thirds were receiving continued treatment. With regard to follow-up for dropouts, majority of the responses were either "Not taking any action"(n=27) or "Not following up"(n=15). Only two respondents answered "Contact the community mental health promotion center," meaning that this response was very rare. Meanwhile, when asked about efficient measures to be implemented for dropouts, a vast majority of the respondents(n=30) selected the answer "Work with the community mental health promotion center." Conclusions : The outpatient treatment orders currently being administered were found to be ineffective, and the associated adherence to outpatient treatment was also found to be extremely poor. Hence, the effectiveness of the therapeutic interventions could benefit from institutional as well as administrative improvements. Community mental health promotion centers are expected to have an important role in the future.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.79-85
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• 2015

Objectives : To investigate clinical and symptomatic differences among motoric subtypes of delirium. Methods : A total of 256 patients referred to psychiatric consultation services for delirium due to general medical condition were assessed retrospectively. Motoric subtypes were determined according to Lipowski's criteria for hyperactive, hypoactive and mixed subtypes. All patients were evaluated according to Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98(DRS-98-R) by trained psychiatrists to obtain symptomatic profiles of delirium. Results : Hyperactive subtype were 50.8%(n=130), mixed 46.1%(n=118) and hypoactive 3.1%(n=8). Hyperactive patients were younger than mixed subtype($69.62{\pm}13.976$ vs. $73.97{\pm}11.569$, p=0.022) and received antipsychotics to manage symptoms of delirium more frequently(83.8% vs. 57.6%, p<0.001). Hyperactive patients had higher DRS-R-98 scores on both noncognitive($7.14{\pm}3.543$ for hyperactive, $5.62{\pm}3.279$ for mixed subtype) and cognitive subscales($10.00{\pm}3.574$ for hyperactive, $6.38{\pm}2.875$ for hypoactive, $7.43{\pm}3.771$ for mixed subtype, p<0.001). Conclusions : We demonstrated that clinical and symptomatic profiles were different across motoric subtypes in delirium. Diagnostic and therapeutic approach should be made differently according to motoric subtypes of delirium and special attention is needed not to underestimate or delay treatment in specific motoric subtype of delirium.

• 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 Social Welfare
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• v.39
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• pp.350-373
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• 1999

The patient population of U. S. state mental hospitals has changed drastically since the 1960s, when the deintstitutionalization movement began. This paper is designed to look at what happened to the number of inpatients of state hospitals in California during the last 150 years and, from this, to explore implications for the future of the mental health system in Korea, especially for the viability of mental hospitals. The data had been collected by field research(visits to state hospitals and State Department of Mental Health, and interviews with mental health administrators) and accessing statistical publications and various reports. Since the first state hospital opened in 1851 the statewide inpatient population of individuals who were mentally disabled has grown and peaked at 37,489 in 1959. The number of patients in state hospitals, however, began declining in the early 1960s and was reduced to 10,874 by 1971, and to 4,973 by 1986. As of 1997, there were only 4, 263 inpatients remaining in the state hospital system. This dramatic decrease slowed down somewhat in 1980s and 1990s, but this trend seems irreversible except for the inpatients referred by the court. Now the beds in state hospitals are filled with more and more forensic patients, which constitutes nearly 70% of the total inpatient population. Based on these findings, it is well expected that the number of inpatients of mental hospitals in Korea will also be reduced in a significant way as the community-based mental health care system is gradually replacing the traditional one. Mental hospitals need to introduce more diversified programs for the care of the mentally ill, and concurrently more vigorous aftercare programs are required in the community.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.3-9
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• 1994

The psychobiological model of cancer has a long history, with Galen's view on melancholic woman being often quoted. From a historical perspective, the 1950s witnessed a surge of interest in psychosomatic medicine and in researches linking psychological, social, and environmental factors to disease onset and progression. The 1960s witnessed the growth of animal experiements, in the hope of better understanding the effects of psychological and behavioral factors on carcinogenesis while controlling confounding variables. The 1970s saw rapid advances in immunology and neurochemistry. Further researches in the 1980s in psychoneuroimmunology explored relationships between immunological responses and psychosocial variables, and their implications for cancer vulnerability and progression. In this review, the interacting aspects of oncology and psychiatry are presented with selected major findings in the fold of psychooncology researches.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.123-132
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• 1997

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the current trends of British Music Therapy and its effectiveness as a therapeutic intervention for the autistic children. This paper consists of two parts；Part one will provide a general picture of music therapy by looking at its fundamental concepts and therories. Part II(two case studies) will illustrate the actual processes of music therapy which can engender a therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the autistic child. Through the first case study of Charlie, a 3 year and 9 month non-verbal autistic boy, we shall see how music therapy facilitates both non-verbal and verbal communication and a form of pretend play. The second case of Mark, a 10 year old autistic boy with complex emotional, behavioural and learning difficulties who had been sexually abused in the past, presents how the therapist’ acceptance of the child’ being and the shared experience of music therapy enable the child to express his difficulties and to develop the awareness of self and others. By exploring both musical and interpersonal aspects of music therapy, this gives an in depth examination of therapeutic processes. In order to clarify clinical procedure, this paper is viewed in musical, developmental and psychodynamic perspectives. To ensure confidentiality, the clients will be referred to by alter-native forenames.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2008

With the rapid growth of geriatric population, geriatric psychiatric consultation has come to play a more important role in recent years. It is necessary to find out characteristics of psychiatric consultation-liaison in elderly and applicate practical guideline of consultation in medical setting. Management of medically ill elderly in psychiatric consultation requires different guideline from that of other age group patient. Because aging and each organ-specific diseases change the pharmacokinetics of psychotropic drugs variably. These pharmacokinetic changes should be considered in psychosomatic treatment in medically ill elderly. The relatively low consultation rates for psychiatric disorders in the elderly indicate that research is needed into factors that both prevent and facilitate elderly patients with psychological symptoms from consulting their general practitioners.

• The Monthly Diabetes
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• s.5
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• pp.20-22
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• 1990