• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 1999

Alexithymia refers to a specific disturbance in psychic functioning characterized by difficulties in the capacity to verbalize affect and to elabolate fantasies. Although it was initially described in the context of psychosomatic illness, alexithymic charateristics may be observed in patients with a wide range of medical and psychiatric disorders. This study was designed to investigate alexithymic characteristics in the patients with alcoholism using Scored Archetypal 9 Test(SAT9) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 Korea version(TAS-20K). Twenty patients with alcoholism and twenty-four normal controls completed these tests. The results were as follows. 1) Patient group with alcoholism were significantly more alexithymic than normal control group in both SAT9 and TAS-20K. 2) No significant difference in the alexithymic measures was found between genders of both group. 3) No significant correlation was found between alexithymic measures and age or education level in both group. 4) Measures between SAT9 and TAS-20K showed significant correlation in the patient group.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.81-92
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• 2013

Newer antidepressants are commonly used in clinical practice to treat psychiatric disorder and psychosomatic disorder including chronic pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, headache. However there are many unexpected adverse effects of these drugs such as nausea and vomiting, weight gain, sexual dysfunction. These are 3 most well-recognized common adverse effects of newer antidepressant and are most common causes of treatment failure. I reviewed mechanisms, epidemiology, and pharmacological management of these adverse effects of newer antidepressants. In this paper, newer antidepressants include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor(fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, escitalopram, sertraline, paroxetine), serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor(venlafaxine, duloxetine), norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor(bupropion), noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant(mirtazapine), and reversible inhibitor of MAO-A(moclobemide). I suggest that psychiatrists and clinicians in the psychosomatic field should know mechanisms, epidemiology, and management of these common and well-recognized adverse effects of newer antidepressants. Therefore it will be helpful to recognize easily and treat well for patients with psychiatric disorder and psychosomatic disorder using newer antidepressants.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.109-119
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• 1996

Hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women has recently been a hot issue in medical fields. The author reviewed the physiology of menopause and discussed the physiological mechanism and biological management of vascular flushing and menopausal depression. The above symptoms are hard to distinguish from those of psychiatric disorders.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 1993

The authors investigated the relationship among stress, mental health and academic performance of high school students(322 males and 320 females). using stress questionaires and Korean version of SCL-90-R. The problem related to academic achievement was highest stressful. The percent of disturbed subjects was 30.68% Interpersonal sensitivity(12.4% ) in the male and depression(15.6%) in the female were prevalent mental health problems. The scores of the stress questionaire positively correlated with the SCL-90-R scores. It suggests that stress is highly related to mental health problem. However, there was no significant correlation between the academic records and SCL-90-R scores. The results were discussed with respect to adjustment problems of the high school students, and implications for prevention and educational program were suggested.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.262-268
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• 1996

It is important not only understanding the underlying psychodynamic mechanism of the somatization but also understanding the somatization as a process where biological and sociocultural factors are acting as maintaining and exaggerating the primary vague somatic symptoms. Recently, among mechanisms of the somatization biological and cognitive aspect became more important than psychodynamics. When the doctors see patients complain physical discomforts without organic foundation, they should give attention to the mechanism of symptom amplification, misinterpretation, individual cognitive characteristics and learned behavior. Psychiatric disorders which show somatic symptoms should be also evaluated. Autonomic dysfunctions linked with stress would give some clues of the mystery of the mind-body relationship.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.286-293
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• 1996

The studying and teaching of behavioral neurology remain in their infancy. As the arena for studying how the brain subserves cognition, emotion and consciousness, behavioral neurology straddles the boundaries of numerous, more established disciplines-extending from the most fundamental explorations of molecular biology to the broadest questions of philosophy. In behavioral neurology, the area of neural dysfunction as well as the pathogenesis must be determined. There are cases in which a more thorough mental status examination must be performed. These are practically the cases with known or suspected brain lesions and acute psychiatric disorders.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.277-285
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• 1996

Somatoform disorders do occur among children and adolescents. Among the seven disorders under the grouping of somatoform disorders of DSM-IV, three disorders, namely somatization disorder, pain disorder and conversion disorder are seen relatively more often than one can expect in childhood and adolescence. Pain disorders are more prevalent among children before adolescence, whereas conversion disorder and somatoform disorder are seen more often during adolescence and early adulthood. Diagnoses of somatofram disorders should not be made by the process of exclusion, but based on positive findings that positive evidence that normal functioning is possible and that a positive history of psychosocial stress and or intrapsychic conflict exists. Treatment strategy should be mindful of including collaboration with primary care health professionals and family therapy staff in addition to all the basic treatment modalities essential for the treatment of children and adolescents.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.72-80
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• 1995

Because the origins of stress are various, complex, and often indirectly-causing, reactions to stress are also various according to it's psychopathologies and mechanisms. For a proper management of stress, first of all accurate evaluation and diagnosis must be done. Then, treatment against the stress also can be considered, if necessary. In case of extreme stress, psychotropic drugs such as short-term anxiolytics or antidepressants can be used according to it's specific target symtoms. But long-term treatment of stress must be directed by increasing the individual's usual coping strategy or decreasing the externally causing stresses. Reactions to stress and drug interactions. which are not the whole of the biologic treatment strategy, are very important As a results, in our discussions, we ought to describe the issues by focusing the interactions between the drug and it's reaction to stress rather than the reaction to stress or drug itself and aimed at helping the proper treatment against the stress.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.81-90
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• 1995

It is essential in evaluating the chronic pain patients that the physician obtain a multiple causative factors including organic, psychological, and socioenvironmental factors. Though these multiple factors are involved in the development of chronic pain syndrome, chronic pain syndrome is not only the sum of the interaction of all of these factors, but is also influenced by the sequelae of chronic pain, which again are organic, psychological, and socioenvironmental in nature. Therefore a systemic approach is probably the best way to asses the role of all of these factors. Furthermore, this approach can provide a framework for understanding chronic pain syndrome, for assessing chronic pain syndrome, for the rational management of chronic pain syndrome, and for the development and testing of hypotheses.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 1995

A comparison was made between the effect of subjective stress and that of objective stress on immune function in male medical college students. Interaction between perceived stress, psychopathology and natural killer-cell(NK) activity was assessed during an exam period, non-exam period, and vacation. No significant difference was found in NK activity among these three periods, but scores of perceived stress related to unusual happenings during an exam period and related to interpersonal relationship during vacation were found to have significantly positive correlation with NK activity, respectively. In psychopathology, only scores of anxiety during an exam period had significantly positive correlation with NK activity. These results suggest that immune function is more likely to be affected by subjective stress than objective stress and that subjective stress such as some perceived stress and subclinical level of anxiety may positively affect immune function.