• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.128-133
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• 2012

Objectives : Located on chromosome 10q22-q23, the human neuregulin 3 (NRG3) is suggested as a strong positional and functional candidate gene involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Several case-control studies examining the association between polymorphisms on NRG3 gene with schizophrenia and/or its traits (such as delusion) have been reported recently in cohorts of Han Chinese, Ashkenazi Jews, Australians, white Americans of Western European ancestry and Koreans. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the association of one SNP in exon 9 (rs2295933) of NRG3 gene with the risk of schizophrenia in a Korean population. Methods : Using TaqMan assay, rs2295933 in the exon 9 of NRG3 was genotyped in 435 patients with schizophrenia as cases and 393 unrelated healthy individuals as controls. Differences in frequency distributions were analyzed using logistic regression models following various modes of genetic inheritance and controlling for age and sex as covariates. Results : Subsequent analysis revealed that the frequency distribution of rs2295933 of NRG3 was not different between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls of Korean ethnicity. Conclusions : This study does not support the role of NRG3 in schizophrenia in a Korean population.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2014

Objectives : Homocysteine has been associated with cognitive impairment and various psychiatric symptoms. This study was designed to examine the relationship exists between plasma homocysteine concentration and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia(BPSD). Methods : 41 subjects with dementia of Alzheimer's type were included in this study. We carried out history taking, physical examination, and cognitive assessment for the diagnosis of dementia of Alzheimer's type based on DSM-IV. We scored the Mini Mental State Examination(MMSE), Global Deterioration Scale(GDS), Clinical Dementia Rating(CDR), and the Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory(K-NPI). We also measured levels of homocysteine, folate, and vitamin $B_{12}$ in the plasma. Results : We found statistically significant positive correlations between homocysteine concentration with NPI total score, and with scores of several sub-domains such as delusion, agitation/aggression, depression/dysphoria, and elation/euphoria. No significant correlation existed between homocysteine levels and scores of MMSE, GDS, and CDR. Conclusions : This study shows that plasma homocysteine levels are associated with BPSD. Further research is necessary to identify pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying these relationships.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.289-299
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• 2016

This study is aimed to report two cases of chronic kidney disease treated with Korean traditional medicine. We treated the patients with traditional herbal medicine and other treatments including acupuncture. We measured serum creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate(eGFR), blood urea nitrogen(BUN), albumin, red blood cell count(RBC), hemoglobin for several times during admission. Case 1 patient was diagnosed with right medulla infarction, bladder stone, chronic kidney disease. The symptoms were quadriplegia, right side dysesthesia, drowsiness and edema. Case 2 patient was diagnosed with acute cerebral infarction, hypertension, chronic kidney disease. The symptoms were right side weakness, delusion, anorexia, low back pain. Case 1 patient was hospitalized for 80 days, and case 2 patient was for 31 days. Korean traditional medicine decreased serum creatinine and BUN level, improved eGFR, increased RBC and hemoglobin. The symptoms of chronic kidney disease such as edema, general body weakness and anorexia were also improved. These cases suggest that Korean traditional medicine can be effective and safe for patients with chronic kidney disease.

• Strategy21
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• s.39
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• pp.5-46
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• 2016

North Korea's 4th nuclear test on Jan. 6 and following developments once again awakened the world into seriousness of the nuclear matters on the Korean peninsula. On March 2, UNSC adopted Resolution 2270 which is complemented by Seoul government's measures such as withdrawal from the Gaesung Industrial Complex (Feb. 9) and announcement of unilateral sanction (March 8). Seoul government also strongly urged the international community to strangle North Korea's 'financial resources.' The U.S., Japan, China, and other countries have issued unilateral sanctions to complement the UNSC measure. South Korea and the U.S. conducted their annual joint military drill (Resolve-Foal Eagle) in the largest-ever scale. North Korea, however, responded with demonstration of its nuclear capabilities and announcement of de facto 'nuclear-first' politics. North Korea test-fired a variety of delivery vehicles, threatened nuclear strikes against South Korea and the U.S., and declared itself as an 'invincible nuclear power armed with hydrogen bombs' at the 7th Workers 'Party Congress held in May, 2016. Considering the circumstantial evidences, the North's 4th nuclear test may have been a successful boosted fission bomb test. North Korea, and, if allowed to go on with its nuclear programs, will become a nuclear power armed with more than 50 nuclear weapons including hydrogen bombs. The North is already conducting nuclear blackmail strategy towards South Korea, and must be developing 'nuclear use' strategies. Accordingly, the most pressing challenge for the international community is to bring the North to 'real dialogue for denuclearization through powerful and consistent sanctions. Of course, China's cooperation is the key to success. In this situation, South Korea has urgent challenges on diplomacy and security fronts. A diplomatic challenge is how to lead China, which had shown dual attitudes between 'pressure and connivance' towards the North's nuclear matters pursuant to its military relations with the U.S, to participate in the sanctions consistently. A military one is how to offset the 'nuclear shadow effects' engendered by the North's nuclear blackmail and prevent its purposeful and non-purposeful use of nuclear weapons. Though South Korea's Ministry of Defense is currently spending a large portion of defense finance on preemption (kill-chain) and missile defense, they pose 'high cost and low efficiency' problems. For a 'low cost and high efficiency' of deterrence, South Korea needs to switch to a 'retaliation-centered' deterrence strategy. Though South Korea's response to the North's nuclear threat can theoretically be boiled down into dialogue, sanction and deterrence, now is the time to concentrate on strong sanction and determined deterrence since they are an inevitable mandatory course to destroy the North' nuclear-first delusion and bring it to a 'real denuclearization dialogue.'

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.113-122
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• 2013

The movie "Beautiful Mind" directed by Ron Howard is about a genius global mathematician, John Nash's life. In the movie, the main actor, John Nash is a schizophrenic patient who suffers from hallucination and delusion, and his illusion appears as three distinct characters. Each researcher has had a different opinion on the interpretation of these three characters, but many parts of their opinions are losing consistency. Especially the girl is assumed to be a character from the main actor's hallucination because she is ageless or there is no interpretation of the girl. Although the director Ron Howard did not adopt Aldous Huxley's theory "the more you know the more you see" for the movie, he analyzed the characters in the way of his own with thinking that he can analyze them in accordance with the knowledge level of audience. The imaginary characters come out from John Nash's head and who he wants to be. They are the basic human needs, earthly desire, sexual desire and the desire for honor. John Nash minutely reflects these three kinds of desires in an imaginary world through the three characters. This thesis is to newly suggest the symbolic meaning of the imaginary characters in the movie by clearly analyzing the meaning of the controversial three characters.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.259-264
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• 1997

The authors performed this preliminary study to investigate the effect of softening E.C.T. and propofol was compared to pentothal for induction of anaesthesia for E.C.T. on seizure duration. The results were follows ; 1) E.C.T. was performed in 60 psychiatric inpatients who were admitted during the study period. Of them 51.7% were diagnosed as schizophrenia, 21.6% as major depressive disorder, 16.7% as bipolar I disorder, manic and 10% of others. 2) Mean number of E.C.T. was 12.2 times a patient. 3) The most common target symptoms were persecutory delusion in schizophrenia, psychomotor retardation or agitation in major depressive disorder, and violent aggressive behavior in bipolar I disorder, manic. 4) Pre-ECT medication usually used were atropine $0.0093mgkg^{-1}$, pentothal $2.76mgkg^{-1}$ or propofol $1.42mgkg^{-1}$. 5) The duration of seizure, as measured clinically, was reduced with propofol(20.5 sec) in comparison with pentothal (35.7 sec)(p<0.001). This suggests the possibility that additional treatments may be needed for the same clinical effect in psychiatric illness when propofol is used as the induction agent.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.77-90
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• 2009

Civil complaints and lawsuits filed in the process of providing emergency medical service include fall accident on the way of carrying the patient, transfer consent, refusal and rejection of rescue request, range and behavior restriction of emergency medical technicians, false registry of logbook, neglect of duty and emergency patient, and violation of traffic laws on the way of dispatch to the scene of accident. This study suggested the measures by cases as follows. 1. The accidents on the way of carrying a patient could be divided into fall of patient and fall by paramedic's mistake. In the former case, damages caused by the ambulance's shaking must be notified to the patient and guardian and recommended to fasten seat belt, in the latter case, the plan of patient's posture, route of transport, rescue and equipments should be comfirmed before fixing the patient. 2. Transfer consent must be made as implied when the patient is unconscious under delusion and was not able to consent physically, and paramedic must take an action by his judgment and record details of services on logbook. 3. When a patient refused to transfer, get 'confirmation of transfer refusal' and inform him of refusal. Paramedic should receive the signature. In addition, in case of refusal, transfer request should be made after hearing doctor's opinion and it should be notified to transfer request and superintendent of fire station after making 'confirmation of transfer refusal'. 4. Emergency medical technicians should perform their duties within the range of services prescribed by Article 41 of Law of Emergency Medical Service and Article 33 of Its Enforcement Regulations and shall not make announcement of death. In case of reporting the death to guardian, it is desirable to use record data like ECG results. 5. The best way to have protection from legal problems is making and keeping the exact records of accident and patient. Paramedic should not mention his subjective opinion about the accident-related matter. He must record correctly and keep the original medical records. 6. As emergency medical technicians are responsible for taking care of emergency patients, they must contact a briefing room when they meet a difficult situation suddenly due to vehicle stop or treatment of other patients and then must have support from neighboring hospital and other safety centers. 7. Since the ambulance operator is responsible for safety and careful driving of ambulance, he must be careful when he violates traffic regulations unavoidably. The operator should drive slowly below 10km/h at an intersection and pass it after getting way from general vehicles driving from all directions.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.39-50
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• 1987

The authors studied paranoid ideation and obsession, using Derogatis s' SCL-90, in the subjects of 2,564 male and 1,252 female college freshmen of Yeungnam University. The authors collected the reports of Self-Rating Paranoid ideation and Obsession Scale during the periods from January to February, 1987, and applied ANOVA and t-test on paranoid ideation and obsession scores in order to compare them between various psychosocial factors, and sexes. The results are as follows: 1. There was not significant difference in the mean averages of total paranoid ideation scores between male and female students : male students scored $4.16{\pm}3.09$, female students scored $4.16{\pm}2.91$. 2. High scored items were delusion and suspiciousness. 3. Fifty-nine male students (2.3%) showed high paranoid ideation scores of 12 or higher, while twenty-six female students(2.1%) showed the same scores. 4. There was strong tendency toward higher paranoid ideation scores in the students who were dissatisfied with their home atmosphere, college, department and familiarity of parents and those who had pessimistic view of self in the past, present or future in both group(respectively P<0.001). The male students who believed protestantism showed higher level of paranoid ideation scores (P<0.01). The male students who attened the department of fine art showed higher level of paranoid ideation scores (P<0.05). 5. There was significant difference in the mean averages of total obsession scores between male and female students (P<0.05) : male students scored $10.40{\pm}5.43$, female students scored $10.75{\pm}5.02$. 6. High scored Items were perfectionism, indecisiveness, inattention & obsessive thoughts. 7. Thirty-eight male students(1.6%) showed high obsession scores of 25 or higher, while fifteen female students(1.2%) showed the same scores. 8. There was strong tendency toward higher obsession scores in the students who were dissatisfied with their home atmosphere, college, department and familiarity of parents and those who had pessimistic view of self in the past, present, or future in both group(respectively P<0.001). The female students who attended the department of home economics & whose educational fees were paid by her brothers & sister, showed higher level of obsession scores(respectively P<0.01).

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.98-104
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• 1998

A 12-year-old girl with a 6 year history of childhood-onset schizophrenia required 2 hospitalizations and long-term clozapine trial due to inadequate responses to combinations of typical neuroleptics and traditional treatments of schizophrenic disorder. On admission, she had continuous auditory and visual hallucinations, persecutory delusion, emotional instability, regression of behaviors including temper tantrums as well as specific developmental delays in learning, language, and motor coordination. The clozapine trial significantly reduced most of the positive symptoms, and facilitated in successful discharge from the hospital. During the 4 year clozapine treatment, no significant adverse reactions were noted, and she returned to a structured school setting with minimal degrees of schizophrenic symptoms. From this clinical experience, we suggest that clozapine might be safe and effective in treating treatment-refractory schizophrenic children.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.146
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• pp.137-162
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• 2018

Zen Psychology refers to the psychology of Zen Buddhism as a field of Buddhist psychology. This paper examines the psychology of human beings, focusing on the "Platform Sutra" written by Huineng, the founder of Patriarchal Zen, and the southern Zen school. According to the classification of Buddhist psychology, Zen psychology is divided into theory of Zen mind, theory of Zend mind function, and Zen psychotherapy. In theory of Zen mind, Huineng explains the mind based on self-nature, and explains the theory of dharma, theory of humanity, theory of dependent origination, and worldview though self-nature. Every human mind has its own original character of self-nature. When one's own mind with self-nature is revealed, it is the basic mind. When it is covered, it is the mind of common people. Self-nature is characterized by dharma construction, incompetence, non-naming, cleanliness, equality, and self-Buddhahood. In the theory of dharma, dharma is non-dual and is equal. The theory of humanity is divided into two groups according to the sharpness and dullness or capacity of the human being. From theory of dependent origination, you can see the mobility of cover and revealment, enlightment and delusion, sacred and common. In the worldview, the world and phenomena are the functions of self-nature and one's own mind. The theory of Zen mind function deals with wisdom and defilement of common people. The function of wisdom is to know the whole and one at the same time, and is intangible. Defilement of common people is an inner common people that cover the functions of wisdom. In Zen psychotherapy, in order to eliminate the gap between human and dharma, seeing into self-nature is suggested and the goal. In teleology, the goal is to reveal and see the self-nature covered by defilements. As a methodology from cover to revealment, Huineng interprets the traditional methodology as a new interpretation from the viewpoint of the mind, and presents Sammu as its own methodology. Based on the absence of attachment, Huineng proposed a methodology of No-abiding, No-thought and No-form, to gather mind on reality and treat all things equally. Based on this, Huineng proposed a new methodology for dealing with karma through repentance and vows, and a methodology for edification. In view of the Four Noble Truth, it is the phenomenon that self-nature is covered, the cause of defilement and the mind, the aim of seeing the self-nature which is covered, and the way of revealing the covered self-nature is presented. In this sense, the Zen Psychology of Platform Sutra is psychology of self-nature.