• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.205-213
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• 2003

Objectives: The authors intended to evaluate long-term outcome of group cognitive behavioral therapy(GCBT) for panic disorder and examined the variables to predict high end-state functioning in 12 months follow-up. Methods: 236 patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for panic disorder were assessed by STAI, ASI, BDI, BSQ, PBQ, ACQ at pre & post treatment, and were asked about the frequency of panic attacks during recent one month. We executed stepwise discriminant analysis on the clinical variables at pre treatment assessment to find the variables for discriminating between high end-state function(HES) and low end-state function(LES). Results: After GCBT, 82.6% of panic patients maintained high end-state functioning at 12 months follow-up. The results of discriminant analysis showed that BDI and BSQ at pre treatment assessment were significant variables to predict end-state functioning at 12 months follow-up. The hit ratio of discriminant analysis was 69.2%. Conclusion: These results suggest that the therapeutic effect of GCBT can be maintained through 12 months. Especially, it is likely that patients who were less depressed and who had less experienced the fear of physical symptoms at pre-treatment can maintain HES.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.42-62
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• 2008

Objectives: It is well known that some parameters of the photoplethysmogram (PPG) acquired by time domain contour analysis can be used as markers of vascular aging. But the previous studies that have been performed for frequency domain analysis of the PPG to date have provided only restrictive and fragmentary information. The aim of the present investigation was to determine whether the harmonics extracted from the PPG using a fast Fourier transformation could be used as an index of vascular aging. Methods: The PPG was measured in 600 recruited subjects for 30 second durations, To grasp the gross age-related change of the PPG waveform, we grouped subjects according to gender and age and averaged the PPG signal of one pulse cycle. To calculate the conventional indices of vascular aging, we selected the 5-6 cycles of pulse that the baseline was relatively stable and then acquired the coordinates of the inflection points. For the frequency domain analysis we performed a power spectral analysis on the PPG signals for 30 seconds using a fast Fourier transformation and dissociated the harmonic components from the PPG signals. Results: A final number of 390 subjects (174 males and 216 females) were included in the statistical analysis. The normalized power of the harmonics decreased with age and on a logarithmic scale reduction of the normalized power in the third (r=-0.492, P<0.0001), fourth (r=-0.621, P<0.0001) and fifth harmonic (r=-0.487, P<0.0001) was prominent. From a multiple linear regression analysis, Stiffness index, reflection index and corrected up-stroke time influenced the normalized power of the harmonics on a logarithmic scale. Conclusions: The normalized harmonic power decreased with age in healthy subjects and may be less error prone due to the essential attributes of frequency domain analysis. Therefore, we expect that the normalized harmonic power density can be useful as a vascular aging marker.