• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.365-370
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• 2016

Background There is a growing concern in the field of aesthetic surgery about the need to measure patients' expectations preoperatively. The present study was designed to develop and validate the Expectations of Aesthetic Rhinoplasty Scale (EARS), and to compare expectations between rhinoplasty patients with and without body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Methods In total, 162 college students and 20 rhinoplasty candidates were recruited. The measures included the newly developed EARS, a measure of psychopathology, and demographics. The DSM-IV structured clinical interview for BDD was used to confirm the diagnosis in rhinoplasty patients. Results The EARS was constructed of six items based on their significant content validity. In the scale development phase, Cronbach's alpha was 0.87. The test-retest reliability coefficient of the scale was satisfactory (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.94; 95% confidence interval, 0.82-0.98) over a four-week period. Scores on the EARS were significantly positively correlated with psychopathological symptoms (r=0.16; P<0.05). Moreover, comparison of EARS scores between BDD (M=25.90, standard deviation [SD]=6.91) and non-BDD rhinoplastic patients (M=15.70, SD=5.27) suggested that BDD patients held significantly higher expectations (P<0.01). Conclusions The expectations of aesthetic rhinoplasty patients toward surgery may play a crucial role in their postoperative satisfaction. While the value of patients' expectations is clinically recognized, no empirical study has measured these expectations in a psychometrically sound manner. The current study developed and validated the EARS. It may be easily used as a valid and reliable instrument in clinical and research settings.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2015

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the characteristics of victim and sexual abuse on posttraumatic psychiatric symptoms in children and adolescents with a history of sexual abuse. Methods : A total of 137 children and adolescents were recruited from the Seoul Sunflower Children Center, a nation-funded sexual violence victim protection center, from January 2009 to December 2013. We collected the demographic data of the victims and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) from victims. We hypothesized victims' age, sex, and intelligence quotient, and the characteristics of sexual abuse as the affecting factors of posttraumatic psychiatric symptoms. Descriptive analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were performed for analysis of demographic data, TSCC scores, and psychiatric symptoms. Results : The victims' age and the characteristics of sexual abuse were significantly related to the traumatic distress of sexual abuse. R-square was 23% for anxiety, 39% for depression, 21% for posttraumatic stress, and 37% for dissociation on TSCC. Conclusion : This study suggests that victims' age, type, frequency and duration of exposure, and disclosure of sexual abuse are significant affecting factors on posttraumatic psychiatric symptoms in children and adolescents. Exploration of psychiatric symptoms other than posttraumatic symptoms, and relations between pretraumatic and posttraumatic psychiatric symptoms is needed through collection of larger samples.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 1997

Longterm memory is encoded in the neuronal connectivities of the brain. The most successful models of human memory in their operations are models of distributed and self-organized associative memory, which are founded in the principle of simulaneous convergence in network formation. Memory is not perceived as the qualities inherent in physical objects or events, but as a set of relations previously established in a neural net by simultaneousy occuring experiences. When it is easy to find correlations with existing neural networks through analysis of network structures, memory is automatically encoded in cerebral cortex. However, in the emergence of informations which are complicated to classify and correlated with existing networks, and conflictual with other networks, those informations are sent to the subcortex including hippocampus. Memory is stored in the form of templates distributed across several different cortical regions. The hippocampus provides detailed maps for the conjoint binding and calling up of widely distributed informations. Knowledge about the distribution of correlated networks can transform the existing networks into new one. Then, hippocampus consolidats new formed network. Amygdala may enable the emotions to influence the information processing and memory as well as providing the visceral informations to them. Cortico-striatal-pallido-thalamo-cortical loop also play an important role in memory function with analysis of language and concept. In case of difficulty in processing in spite of parallel process of informations, frontal lobe organizes theses complicated informations of network analysis through temporal processing. With understanding of brain mechanism of memory and information processing, the brain mechanism of mental phenomena including psychopathology can be better explained in terms of neurobiology and meuropsychology.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2006

Background : Several studies have suggested that alterations of cytokine level could be related to the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. In this study, we measured plasma level of Interleukin-12(IL-12), a pro-inflammatory cytokine and transforming growth factor-${\beta}$1(TGF-${\beta}$1), an anti-inflammatory cytokine before and after treatment in acute manic patients. Methods : The plasma concentrations of IL-12 and TGF-${\beta}$1 were measured using quantitative ELISA in 18 bipolar disorder patients and 25 normal controls at admission and 6 weeks later. The psychopathology was measured by Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS) and Young Mania Rating Scale(YMRS). Results : IL-12 levels were significantly higher in bipolar manic patients than in controls before treatment. Following the 6-week treatment, the IL-12 level was decreased than before treatment, but sustained still higher level than normal control. TGF-${\beta}$1 level was not significant different between manic patients and normal controls before treatment, but was increased after treatment comparing with before treatment in bipolar patients. The ratio of IL-12 and TGF-${\beta}$1 was significantly decreased after treatment. Conclusion : Cytokine abnormalities in bipolar disorder might be involved in the pathophysiology of the illness. It is possible that TGF-${\beta}$1 plays an important role in the regulation of immunological imbalance in bipolar disorder.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.141-150
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• 2014

Objectives The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of attachment security, social support and health-related burden in the prediction of psychological distress and the mediation effects of social support and health-related burden in relationship between attachment security and psychological distress. Methods Finally, 161 patients were included for the analysis. Chi-square test and independent samples t-test were used for comparing differences between depressive/anxious group and non-depressive/non-anxious group. For evaluating the relationship among attachment security, social support, psychological distress and health-related burden, structural equation modeling analysis were performed. Results 40.7% and 32.0% of the patients have significant depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms, respectively. In the analysis for testing the differences between groups who have psychological distress and who have not, there were no significant differences of sociodemographic factors and medical characteristics between groups, except for association between depressive symptoms and type of surgery (p = 0.01). Contrary to sociodemographic and medical characteristics, there were significant differences of health-related burden and two coping resources (attachment security and social support) between groups (all p < 0.01), except for the support from medical team in between anxious group and non-anxious group (p = 0.20). In the structural equation model analysis (Model fit : chi-square/df ratio = 0.8, root mean square error of approximation = 0.000, comparative fit index = 1.000, non-normed fit index =0.991), attachment security and social support emerged as an important predictor of psychopathology. Conclusions Attachment security and social support are important factors affecting the psychological distress. We suggest that individual attachment style and the social support state must be considered to approach the newly diagnosed breast cancer patients with psychological distress.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.451-457
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of psychobiographical information on the attitude change toward mentally ill people. For this, 30 college students were randomly assigned to one group that received a psychobiographical information(PBI) and the other group a psycho-pathological information(PPI). Measures of attitude change were favorability, reliability, and social distance. The results were significantly different only in social distance between the two groups. Within each group, there was a significant change in favorability only in the psycho-pathological information group, and there was a significant change in the favorability, reliability and social distance in the psychobiographical information group. These results are significant in that they have empirically confirmed that a psychobiographical approach can be effective in changing attitudes toward mentally ill people.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 1998

Objectives: This research was performed to know severity of depression and anxiety, the psychopathology of hemodialysis patients and kidney transplantation patients using Minneesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory(MMPI) and Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale(SAS), MMPI Subscales. Methods: We surveyed 31 hemodialysis patients and 119 kidney transplantation patients. 119 kidney transplantation group(KT) was investigated at ; 1) Before kidney transplantation (KT-1), 2) Three days after kidney transplantation(KT-2), 3) Three weeks after kidney transplantation(KT-3),4) Follow up at OPD(F/U). Results: 1) According to dermographic data, mean age was KT 33.1, HD 42.2, Control 33.1 years old and KT, HD were belonged to lower economic states and lower educational level than Control. 2) In the depression scale for SDS, KT-1 was more depressed than F/U and Control but depression scale was significantly decreased at KT-2 in comparison with HD. In the anxiety scale for SAS, KT-1 was more anxious than Control but anxiety scale was not different within IT subgroups and in comparison with HD. 3) In comparison of MMPI scales, Hs, D, Pt, Ma at KT-1, Pd, Pa, Pt, Ma at KT-2, F, D, Pd, Pt, Pa, Sc, Ma at KT-3, Pt at F/U were more high scores than Control.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2007

Objectives : The aim of this study was to assess whether individuals who visit clinics to ask medical help for obesity treatment depict comparable levels of depression, body dissatisfaction, eating psychopathology and lower quality of life. Methods : This is a cross sectional study with 534 females who sought treatment for their obesity or overweight being recruited in seven clinical units in Seoul, Korea. The patients group was divided into two groups. The group 1 consisted of the patients with BMI >$25\;kg/m^2$. The women who showed BMI ${\leq}\;25\;kg/m^2$ among patients recruited for this study were classified as the group 2. The control group (group 3) was composed of 398 healthy females who have never tried to lose weight. Results : We found that group 1 had higher frequency of more than moderate level of depression than group 2 and group3 did. Both patients groups showed greater eating disordered attitudes and behaviors regardless of obese condition than the control group. Group1 showed relatively lower level of quality of life than group2 and group3 in terms of the quality of life related to physical well-being. In addition, the control group reported higher quality of life in psychological health than both patients groups did. Conclusions : In conclusion, it is necessary for clinicians to make a careful evaluation of depressive tendency and eating disorders when obese women seek for medical help. The combination of medical treatment and psychological approach for obese women would result in higher quality of life.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2010

Objectives : This study investigated the influence of traumatic experience on the ego identity, self-esteem, and general psychopathology of adolescent North Korean refugees. Methods : The participants were 146 adolescents North Korean refugees who attended H High School for North Korean refugees. We divided the subjects into two groups according to the severity of their traumatic experience : the more-traumatic-experience group and the less-traumatic-experience group. Each group performed self-report assessments including an assessment to reveal demographic characteristics, the Traumatic Experiences Scale for North Korean Defectors, the Scale for Ego identity, the Scale for Self-esteem and the Symptom Check-90-Revision (SCL-90-R). Statistical analysis of t-test and multiple regression utilized SPSS 12.0 for Window for comparison between more-traumatic-experience group and less-traumatic-experience group. Results : The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder among adolescents North Korean refugees was 37%. The factor with the greatest influence on ego identity was length of time living in South Korea, while, for self-esteem the most influential factor was perception of health. The more-traumatic-experience group had lower self-esteem scores on some subscales of the Scale for Ego identity. They had higher scores on all SCL-90-R subscales than the less-traumatic-experience group. Conclusion : Adolescent North Korean refugees experienced high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder. The more traumatic-experience-group had lower self esteem and poorer ego identity and mental health than the less-traumatic-experience group.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2011

Objective : This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in schizophrenia, and the relationship among OCD, severity of psychopathology, and social function in stable patients with chronic schizophrenia. Methods : We interviewed 138 symptom-stable inpatients who had been on a constant dose of antipsychotics for at least 1 month prior and diagnosed as chronic schizophrenia. Subsequently, patients were classified according to the existence of OCD as investigated using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders (SCID-I) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Further, all clinical and demographic data was investigated. To investigate potential interrelationships, the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Korea-Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (K-PANSS), and the Korean Personal and Social Performance (K-PSP) were used. An independent ttest and Chi-square test were used to compare groups and a Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between the Y-BOCS and other clinical rating scales. Results : The prevalence of OCD in schizophrenia patients was 18.1%. Patients with schizophrenia and OCD exhibited significantly earlier onset of schizophrenia, more severe psychiatric symptoms, and lower personal and social performance ability as compared to those without OCD. There was no significant relationship among Y-BOCS, K-PANSS, and K-PSP. Conclusion : We found that comorbid OCD was relatively more frequent in patients with schizophrenia. An investigation involving larger samples of schizophrenia patients with OCD with respect to social function and thus, the effect on quality of life is required.