• Anxiety and mood
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2015

Objective : Police officers are exposed to job-related traumatic events and have a high prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study examined the relationship between PTSD symptoms and dimensions of temperament and character in police officers. Method : Thirty-six police officers participating in a psychological support program were enrolled. All subjects were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and other self-reported symptoms scales. Results : Among all participants (age $40.8{\pm}10.2$, men 94.4%), the rate of 'post-traumatic stress symptoms group' was 47.2%. After controlling for confounding factors, lower self-directedness scores were significantly associated with higher PTSD symptoms (${\beta}=0.6$, p=0.03) in multiple regression analysis. Conclusion : Character traits, especially self-directedness, were associated with the severity of PTSD symptoms severity. These findings may provide useful information regarding personality factors related to PTSD in police officers.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.407-412
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• 2023

When a traumatic subject experiences extreme stress, various psychiatric problems, including PTSD, can occur if they do not respond appropriately. In addition, non-war soldiers who experience life-threatening events while serving in the military may experience severe and chronic PTSD symptoms. However, there are still insufficient domestic studies on what traumatic events soldiers are exposed to and how much PTSD symptoms they experience. Therefore, this study provides a method that can be used as basic data for PTSD and psychological support of military service personnel by identifying trends in domestic research. Furthermore, it studies PTSD not only of soldiers but also of 'civilians' who have experienced combat, and provides symptomatic treatment and relief programs to civilians according to the difference in PTSD between general trauma and war trauma. It is expected that these studies will increase military confidence and enable the military to play a leading role in war trauma PTSD research and prevention, treatment and mitigation.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify relationships of resilience, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), and quality of life of breast cancer patients. The findings from this study would provide baseline data needed for nursing intervention. Methods: A sample of 129 breast cancer patients was recruited from three hospitals in J and C cities in Korea. The survey was conducted with participants by utilizing self-reported questionnaires. Results: Quality of life showed statistically significant differences on religion (t=2.11, p=.033) and hobby (t=2.79, p=.006). Resilience and PTSD had a negative correlation (r=-.22, p=.010). Resilience and quality of life of the participants had a positive correlation (r=.58, p<.001), whereas PTSD and quality of life had a negative correlation (r=-.45, p<.001). Significant predictors of quality of life were resilience and PTSD. These variables explained 44.9% of the variance in quality of life. Conclusion: Findings indicate that as resilience of breast cancer patients rose higher and PTSD got lower, their quality of life increased. Based on these results, nursing interventions directed towards improving resilience and relieving PTSD is proposed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.191-200
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• 2011

Objectives: The goal of this paper is to examine the social network effects on post-traumatic sdress disorder (PTSD) in female North Korean immigrants who entered South Korea in 2007. Specifically, it attempts to verify if the density and composition of networks make a difference after controlling for the network size. Methods: A multivariate logistic regression is used to probe the effects of social networks using the North Korean Immigrant Panel data set. Because the data set had only completed its initial survey when this paper was written, the analysis was cross-sectional. Results: The size of the support networks was systematically related to PTSD. Female North Korean immigrants with more supporting ties were less likely to develop PTSD, even after controlling for other risk factors (odds-ratio for one more tie was 0.8). However, once we control for the size of the network, neither the density nor the composition of the networks remains statistically significant. Conclusions: The prevalence of the PTSD among female North Korean immigrants is alarmingly high, and regardless of the characteristics of supporting network members, the size of the supporting networks provides substantial protection. This implies that a simple strategy that focuses on increasing the number of supporting ties will be effective among North Korean immigrants who entered South Korea in recent years.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.525-538
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• 2018

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-induced psychiatric disorder characterized by impaired fear extermination, hyperarousal, and anxiety that may involve the release of monoamines in the fear circuit. The reported pharmacological properties of tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) include anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-atherosclerotic, and neuropsychiatric activities. However, the anxiolytic-like effects of TMP and its mechanism of action in PTSD are unclear. This study measured several anxiety-related behavioral responses to examine the effects of TMP on symptoms of anxiety in rats after single prolonged stress (SPS) exposure by reversing the serotonin (5-HT) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction. Rats were given TMP (10, 20, or 40 mg/kg, i.p.) for 14 days after SPS exposure. Administration of TMP significantly reduced grooming behavior, increased the time spent and number of visits to the open arm in the elevated plus maze test, and significantly increased the number of central zone crossings in the open field test. TMP administration significantly reduced the freezing response to contextual fear conditioning and significantly restored the neurochemical abnormalities and the SPS-induced decrease in 5-HT tissue levels in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. The increased 5-HT concentration during TMP treatment might be partially attribute to the tryptophan and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid mRNA level expression in the hippocampus of rats with PTSD. These findings support a role for reducing the altered serotonergic transmission in rats with PTSD. TMP simultaneously attenuated the HPA axis dysfunction. Therefore, TMP may be useful for developing an agent for treating psychiatric disorders, such those observed in patients with PTSD.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2020

In this study, we suggested indirect evidence of whether Sasang constitution(SC) could be a risk factor for Post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) among soldiers who participated in Vietnam war. The number of 199 subjects joined this study. We surveyed SC with KS-15 and PTSD with Korean Version of Impact of Event Scale-Revised questionnaires. A Chi-square test and a one-way ANOVA were performed according to SC type, and multiple logistic regression was used to produce odds ratios(ORs). Significant p was .05. The number(rate) of Taeeumin(TE), Soeumin(SE), and Soyangin(SY) types were 131(65.8%), 33(16.6%), and 35(17.6%) respectively. The score of PTSD in SE type(8.78±8.61) was significantly higher than those of SY(4.00±6.5) and TE types(3.65±6.78)(p=.001, SE>TE, SY, Scheffe). SE type was associated with increased PTSD prevalence compared with TE [OR 4.338; 95% CI 1.525-12.335, p<.01], and it was still associated with increased PTSD prevalence [OR 10.658; 95% CI 1.296-87.661, p<.05] after adjusting for age and weight. This study suggests that SC, particularly the SE type, might be significantly associated with PTSD and could be considered as a risk factor for PTSD.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 2021

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate that the prevalence of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and occupational environmental factors that contribute to the developing of PTSD in workers who worked in emergency room in Korea. Methods: This study is a multicenter cross-sectional study that was conducted in three emergency rooms. Data was collected by self-response method through questionnaire. The Impact Event Scale-Revised was used to screen the high-risk group of PTSD. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis was used to identify the factors associated with the developing of high-risk group of PTSD. Results: Total 211 subjects responded to the questionnaire. Of these, 170 subjects experienced psychological trauma event (PTE) in the working environment. And 60 subjects classified as high risk group of PTSD, so a prevalence of high risk group for PTSD was 28.4%. Factors related to the high risk group of PTSD were the frequency of psychological trauma events experienced over the past 1 year and the high score of QIDS-SR16. Conclusion: The prevalence of high risk group for PTSD among emergency room workers in Korea is very high. This may adversely affect the safety of patients, so early screening and intervention are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.101-108
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• 2015

Recent breakthroughs in functional neuroimaging techniques have launched the quest of mapping the connections of the human brain, otherwise known as the human connectome. Imaging connectomics is an umbrella term that refers to the neuroimaging techniques used to generate these maps, which recently has enabled comprehensive brain mapping of network connectivity combined with graph theoretic methods. In this review, we present an overview of the key concepts in functional connectomics. Furthermore, we discuss articles that applied task-based and/or resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine network deficits in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These studies have provided important insights regarding the etiology of PTSD, as well as the overall organization of the brain network. Advances in functional connectomics are expected to provide insight into the pathophysiology and the development of biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment of PTSD.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.38-49
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• 2021

Objectives: This study was conducted to analyze the impact of safety/health managers' experience of trauma case on their post traumatic stress disorder and the mediation effects of job stress and the moderated mediation effects of social support. Method: Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from 241 workplace safety/health managers with experience in trauma case. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS(IBM. Ver.26.0) and verified through SPSS PROCESS Macro (Ver. 3.4). Results: The trauma case experience and the job stress, which is a mediation variable, had a statistically significant positive effect on post-traumatic stress disorder, and the job stress had a positive mediation effect in the relationship between the trauma case experience and post-traumatic stress disorder. Social support had a statistically significant negative moderation effect in the relationship between the trauma case experience and job stress; social support had a moderated mediation effect on the indirect effect of a job stress on the post-traumatic effect through a trauma case experience. Conclusion: The above findings suggest that work-related job stress management is important in order to reduce safety/health managers' post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the experience of trauma case, and that social support is essential to reduce the job stress, which can later be used as a basis for further studies.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.183-192
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• 2018

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-induced psychiatric disorder characterized by impaired fear extermination, hyperarousal, anxiety, depression, and amnesic symptoms that may involve the release of monoamines in the fear circuit. The present study measured several anxiety-related behavioral responses to examine the effects of berberine (BER) on symptoms of anxiety in rats after single prolonged stress (SPS) exposure, and to determine if BER reversed the dopamine (DA) dysfunction. Rats received BER (10, 20, or 30 mg/kg, intraperitoneally, once daily) for 14 days after SPS exposure. BER administration significantly increased the time spent in the open arms and reduced grooming behavior during the elevated plus maze test, and increased the time spent in the central zone and the number of central zone crossings in the open field test. BER restored neurochemical abnormalities and the SPS-induced decrease in DA tissue levels in the hippocampus and striatum. The increased DA concentration during BER treatment may partly be attributed to mRNA expression of tyrosine hydroxylase and the DA transporter in the hippocampus, while BER exerted no significant effects on vesicular monoamine transporter mRNA expression in the hippocampus of rats with PTSD. These results suggest that BER had anxiolytic-like effects on behavioral and biochemical measures associated with anxiety. These findings support a role for reduced anxiety altered DAergic transmission and reduced anxiety in rats with PTSD. Thus, BER may be a useful agent to treat or alleviate psychiatric disorders like those observed in patients with PTSD.