• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2020

Background: The number of patients with dementia continues to increase as the age of aging continues to grow. Psychiatric symptoms caused by senile dementia are controlled using antipsychotics. However, these antipsychotics can lead to Parkinson's disease, and abuse of dopamine derivatives such as levodopa among Parkinsonian drugs can lead to psychosis. Therefore, we evaluated the patterns of prescribed antipsychotics and antiparkinsonian drugs in patients with senile dementia. Methods: We used data from the sample of elderly patients from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA-APS-2016). We analyzed the patterns of prescribing antipsychotics and antiparkinsonian drugs including prescribed daily dosage, period of prescription, and number of patients with both antipsychotics and antiparkinsonian drugs for senile dementia. Results: Among the 159,391 patients with dementia included in this analysis, 4,963 patients (3.1%) and 16,499 patients (10.4%) were prescribed typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs, respectively. The most frequently prescribed typical antipsychotic was haloperidol (4,351 patients with dementia), whereas the atypical agent was quetiapine (12,719 patients). The most frequently prescribed antiparkinsonian drugs were in the order of levodopa/carbidopa, benztropine, and ropinirole. In addition, 1,103 and 3,508 patients prescribed typical and atypical antipsychotics, respectively, were co-prescribed antiparkinsonian drugs. Conclusions: Atypical antipsychotics were the preferred prescription in patients with senile dementia. The prescription dose was relatively low; however, the average treatment duration was mostly long-term. Selection of antipsychotics and/or antiparkinsonian drugs should be made carefully in senile dementia and the causal relationship of adverse drug reactions needs further study.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2335-2340
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• 2014

Paclitaxel is hydrophobic in nature and is recognized as a highly toxic anticancer drug, showing adverse effects in normal body sites. In this study, we developed a polymeric nano drug carrier for safe delivery of the paclitaxel to the cancer that releases the drug in a sustained manner and reduces side effects. N-isopropylacrylamide/vinyl pyrrolidone (NIPAAm/VP) nanoparticles were synthesized by radical polymerization. Physicochemical characterization of the polymeric nanoparticles was conducted using dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance, which confirmedpolymerization of formulated nanoparticles. Drug release was assessed using a spectrophotometer and cell viability assays were carried out on the MCF-7 breast cancer and B16F0 skin cancer cell lines. NIPAAm/VP nanoparticles demonstrated a size distribution in the 65-108 nm range and surface charge measured -15.4 mV. SEM showed the nanoparticles to be spherical in shape with a slow drug release of ~70% in PBS at $38^{\circ}C$ over 96 h. Drug loaded nanoparticles were associated with increased viability of MCF-7 and B16F0 cells in comparison to free paclitaxel. Nano loaded paclitaxel shows high therapeutic efficiency by sustained release action for the longer period of time, i increasing its efficacy and biocompatibility for human cancer therapy. Therefore, paclitaxel loaded (NIPAAm/VP) nanoparticles may provide opportunities to expand delivery of the drug for clinical selection.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.119-145
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• 2014

Under the premise that information privacy concerns can atrophy e-commerce by causing particular behaviors of Internet users, this study focused on exploring the causes of information privacy concerns, the related information privacy protective responses of Internet users, and measures for alleviating the information privacy concerns. This study is based on the 'principal-agent theory,' and established the following as factors that cause information privacy concerns of Internet users: perceived information non-transparency; perceived action uncertainty. Also, the information privacy concerns caused by the factors were established as the cause of information privacy protective responses of Internet users. Also, the concept of 'signaling' and 'incentive,' which were presented to solve the adverse selection and moral hazard issue in the host-agent theory, was introduced to establish the following as factors that alleviate information privacy concerns: trust; informativeness. Those factors were included in the research model to conduct an empirical analysis. The analysis has revealed that both the perceived information non-transparency (p<0.01) and perceived action uncertainty (p<0.01) as to websites had a significant impact on information privacy concerns. Also, information privacy concerns of Internet users (p<0.01) had a significant impact on their information privacy protective responses who strive to protect their personal information. In addition, when trust and informativeness, which were established as factors that can alleviate information privacy concerns, were empirically analyzed, trust and informativeness had the effect of alleviating information privacy concerns. Based on the findings, the following was confirmed: Boosting the trust of Internet users in websites and offering useful information related to personal data can play a key role in alleviating the information privacy concerns of Internet users.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.743-756
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• 2009

This paper tries to analyze how the governance institutions of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey overcome agent problems in public agencies based on the Principal-Agent Theory, and find the implications that will be helpful to the governance of port authorities in Korea. The Port Authority's governance is characterized by decentralization of personnel rights, open meetings policy, freedom of information policy, public hearings, and fiscally self-supporting system. Those characteristics are helpful in overcoming the agent problems of public agency, such as adverse selection, moral hazard, and complicated external structure, through reinforcing of monitoring agent by principal, easing of information asymmetry between principal and agent, and clarification of organizational ownership structure. Those characteristics may give many implications for the design of governance structures of port authorities in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.83-102
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• 2009

Banks traditionally focus on the financial services against the uncertain future liquidity needs, i.e. saving as well as lending. As the business model of banks has been shifted from the originate to hold model to the originate to distribute model since the enactment of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act in 1999, the financial services encompass information gathering and generating, underwriting and risk sharing through packaging claims for the investors, in addition to the payment and settlement services. Ensued are the financial market integration and diversification of financial services, with which the accessibility to financial services is arguably significantly enhanced. Such integration and diversification necessarily entails the risk of contagion due to the non-fulfilling service over the several other financial services, which would be contained easily under the separate financial services. This paper addresses the pricing of fees for the integrated financial services through which the contagion could spread when the users of financial service are not immune to the failure to fulfill their obligation due to the economic turmoil. Consequently the information asymmetry about the clients is unavoidable. Higher fees could drive out the otherwise good clients out of the pool of customers for the financial services. Then, the risk could be exacerbated due to the proliferation of bad clients who are vulnerable to the financial distress and liquidity crunch. So the banks should take into account the interactional effect of the fees between/among the non interest based activities and interest based activities under the information asymmetry. Contrary to our general perception, the current analysis demonstrates that the bank should focus on the reduction of cost associated with good clients rather than that of bad clients.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.543-552
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• 2010

The objectives of this study are to examine the current status and problems of herb-drug interaction (HDI) information and information database in Korea and suggest the better way to establish useful HDI database. We collected HDI studies that published in Korea and analyzed according to objective, methods, selection criteria of herbs, number of study, correlation between study subject and frequently used herbal medicine (HM). Then we selected representative HM database on the internet made by Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) among the several databases and analyzed its contents related to HDI. Several HDI studies were carried out from laboratory based research to clinical trials and HM databases have been developed for providing information about different aspects of traditional Korean medicine. But the information of HDI and information database are still far from practical applications because there are no coherence to select study subjects and methods among researchers. So, it is necessary to build up HDI database led by the government for providing systematic HDI information. HDI information database is expected to be able to provide useful evidence for health professionals in prescription and consultation to reduce the chance of adverse effects and improve the quality of medical care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.56-60
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• 2009

More than 80% of cancer-related pain is pharmacologically controllable, whereas $10{\sim}20%$ of patients require interventional treatments. Neurolytic nerve block can play a major role in cancer pain treatment, and it has been proposed to prevent the development of pain and improve the quality of life of patients with cancer. If the pain is well localized and restricted to certain peripheral parts of the body, spinal peripheral or sympathetic nerve blocks may result in excellent therapeutic effects. Neurolytic sympathetic block, especially Celiac plexsus block (CPB) performed in earlier stages, is effective with successful long term results. However, selection of patients is critical for succeful outcomes. Neurolytic plexus block significantly improves the quality of life of patients and reduces abdominal and pelvic cancer pain, analgesic consumption and adverse opioids-related side effects. Interventional pain management should be considered at earlier stages to provide patients with the best quality of life possible.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.203-206
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• 2018

Objectives: There is an increasing number of complex diseases that are progressively more difficult to be controlled using the conventional "single compound, single target" approach as demonstrated in our current modern drug development. TCM might be the new cornerstone of treatment alternative when the current treatment option is no longer as effective or that we have exhausted it as an option. Orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility group study is one of the most frequently employed formulas to produce optimal herbal combination for treatment of multi-syndromic diseases. This approach could solve the relatively low efficacy single drug therapy usage and chronic adverse effects caused by long terms administration of drugs that has been reported in the field of pharmacology and medicine Methods: The present review was based on the Science Direct database search for those related to the TCM and the development of antihypertensive TCM herbal combination using orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility group studies approach. Results: Recent studies have demonstrated that the orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility group study approach was most frequently used to formulate TCM herbal combination based on the TCM principles upon the selection of herbs, and the resulting formulated TCM formula exhibited desired outcomes in treating one of global concerned complex multi-syndromic diseases, the hypertension. These promising therapeutic effects were claimed to have been attributed by the holistic signaling mechanism pathways employed by the crude combination of herbs. Conclusion: The present review could serve as a guide and prove the feasibility of TCM principles to be used for future pharmacological drug research development.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.233-239
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• 2016

Objective: Uterine contraction induced by the embryo transfer (ET) process has an adverse effect on embryo implantation. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of oxytocin antagonist supplementation on the day of ET on in vitro fertilization outcomes via a meta-analysis. Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Four online databases (Embase, Medline, PubMed, and Cochrane Library) were searched through May 2015 for RCTs that investigated oxytocin antagonist supplementation on the day of ET. Studies were selected according to predefined inclusion criteria and meta-analyzed using RevMan 5.3. Only RCTs were included in this study. The main outcome measures were the clinical pregnancy rate, the implantation rate, and the miscarriage rate. Results: A total of 123 studies were reviewed and assessed for eligibility. Three RCTs, which included 1,020 patients, met the selection criteria. The implantation rate was significantly better in patients who underwent oxytocin antagonist infusion (19.8%) than in the control group (11.3%) (n = 681; odds ratio [OR], 1.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.25-2.96). No significant difference was found between the two groups in the clinical pregnancy rate (n = 1,020; OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 0.92-2.67) or the miscarriage rate (n = 456; OR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.44-1.33). Conclusion: The results of this meta-analysis of the currently available literature suggest that the administration of an oxytocin antagonist on the day of ET improves the implantation rate but not the clinical pregnancy rate or miscarriage rate. Additional, large-scale, prospective, randomized studies are necessary to confirm these findings.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.170-177
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• 2011

Transdermal drug delivery(TDS) offers many important advantages. For instance, it is easy and painless, it protects the active compound from gastric enzymes, and it avoids the hepatic first-pass effect. Also, it is simple to terminate the therapy if any adverse or undesired effect occurs. But skin is a natural barrier, and only a few drugs can penetrate the skin easily and in sufficient quantities to be effective. Therefore, in recent years, numerous studies have been conducted in the area of penetration enhancement. The most commonly used transdermal system is the skin patch using various types of technologies. Compared with other method of dosage, it is possible to use for a long term. It is also possible to stop the drug dosage are stopped if the drug dosage lead to side effect. Polysaccharide, such as xanthan gum and algin were selected as base materials of TDS. Also, these polymers were characterized in terms of enhancers and drug contents. Among these polysaccharide, the permeation rate of Paroxetine such as lipophilic drug was the fastest in xanthan gum matrix in vitro. We used glycerin, PEG400 and PEG800 as enhancers. Since dermis has more water content(hydration) than the stratum corneum, skin permeation rate at steady state was highly influenced when PEG400 was more effective for lipophilic drug. Proper selection of the polymeric materials which resemble and enhance properties of the delivering drug was found to be important in controlling the skin permeation rate.