• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2019

Stress is accompanied by changes in the responses of the autonomic nervous system, and the heart rate variability (HRV) index is a quantitative marker that reflects autonomic responses induced by stressors. In this study, we observed changes in the autonomic responses induced by combinations of 30% oxygen administration and color light for stress relaxation. In all, 42 participants produced stress symptoms over the preceding two weeks, as rated on the stress response scale. After stress assessment, they were exposed to three therapeutic conditions, and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were recorded before, during, and after therapy. The three therapy conditions consisted of only 30% oxygen administration with white light, a combination of 30% oxygen and orange light, and a combination of 30% oxygen and blue light. The HRV indices extracted from ECG signals were heart rate (HR), the standard deviation of the RR interval (SDNN), the mean square root of consecutive RR interval difference values (RMSSD), the low frequency component of HRV (LF), the high frequency component (HF), and the LF/HF ratio. These indicators were used to compare mean values before and after therapy. The results showed that HR and the LF/HF ratio were significantly lower after therapy than before it. In particular, the condition with 30% oxygen and blue light yielded significantly greater RMSSD and HF increases, as well as decreases in LF/HF ratio than in other two conditions. Our results suggest that therapy with 30% oxygen and blue light is the most effective for the relaxation of stress, which implies autonomic balance by parasympathetic activation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.4
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• pp.677-685
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• 2012

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of forest environment and therapeutic program to the patients with major depressive disorder in antidepressant medication. The first group participated the four sessions of therapeutic program in the forest environment ("forest therapy"), the second group did in the program in a hospital environment, the third group did merely walking in the forest ("forest bath"), and the last group was controls. All the participants was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and had been taking antidepressant medication longer than 3 months. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression(HRSD), Montgomery-Asberg Depressin Rating Scales(MADRS), Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), and general health perception was measured by Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire(SF-36). Heart rate variability(HRV) were also examined to observe the physiological parameters before and after the program. In the results, HRSD score of forest program group was significantly lower than controls after the program. MADRS score of forest therapy group and hospital program group was also significantly lower than controls after 4 sessions of the program. The remission rate defined as below 7 points in HRSD was higher in the forest therapy group, hospital program group, forest bath group, and controls in order. These results reveals that the therapeutic program performed in forest environment may improve unremitted depressive symptoms of patients with major depressive disorder. Although not significant, the forest therapy program showed better outcome than hosptial program and forest bath.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2024

Objectives: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent mental health condition, and techniques using sensory stimulation in processing traumatic memories have gained attention. The Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a psychotherapy that combines tapping on acupoints with exposure to cognitive reframing. This pilot study aimed to assess the feasibility of EFT as a treatment for PTSD by answering the following research questions: 1) What is the compliance and completion rate of patients with PTSD with regard to EFT protocol? Is the dropout rate reasonable? 2) Is the effect size of EFT protocol for PTSD sufficient to justify a future trial? Methods: Thirty participants diagnosed with PTSD were recruited. They received weekly EFT sessions for five weeks, in which they repeated a statement acknowledging the problem and accepting themselves while tapping the SI3 acupoint on the side of their hand. PTSD symptoms were evaluated using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) before and after the intervention. Results: Of the 30 PTSD patients (mean age: 34.1 ± 9.1, 80% female), 96.7% showed over 80% compliance to the EFT sessions, and 86.7% completed the entire study process. The mean PCL-5 total score decreased significantly after the intervention, with a large effect size (change from baseline: -14.33 [95% CI: -19.79, -8.86], p < 0.0001, d = 1.06). Conclusion: The study suggests that EFT is a feasible treatment for PTSD, with high session compliance and low dropout rates. The effect size observed in this study supports the need for a larger trial in the future to further investigate EFT as a treatment for PTSD. However, the lack of a control group and the use of a self-rated questionnaire for PTSD symptoms are limitations of this study. The findings of this pilot study can be used to plan a future trial.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2012

Purpose: This study was done to evaluate the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy in a victimized community district and to determine if the program is an effective nursing intervention to reduce posttraumatic stress disorder symptom, depression and state anxiety. Methods: A nonequivalent control group design was used for the study. The participants, 32 elementary school students, were selected from grades 4, 5, 6 and each student was assigned to either the experimental (16) or control (16) group. Cognitive behavioral therapy was used as the experimental treatment from April 9 to May 28, 2009. The experimental group received cognitive behavior therapy intervention 8 times. Data analysis was done using ANCOVA with SPSS 17.0. Results: After the intervention, the experimental group showed significantly lower levels of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms than the control group. Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective nursing intervention to decrease the level of mental health problems of children in victimized district. Further research is required in order to identify the continuous effects of cognitive behavioral therapy.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.31-35
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• 1998

Many reaearchers have reproted that poor body postures are associated with pains or symptoms of musculoskeletal dissoders. Therefore, the ergonomic evaluation of postural stresses as well as biomechanical stresses is important when a job such as automobile assembly tasks involves highly repetitive and/or prolonged poor body postures. A macropostural classification shema was developed to characterise various body postures occurring in automobile assembly tasks in the study. To specify a postural code and stress level to each body posture, perceived joint discomforts were subjectively evaluated in the lab experiments for the full range of motion in five human body joints. Based on the reaults, a postural classification scheme was developed where the full range of motion in each body joint was classified into several codes repressenting different stress levels. The automobile tasks were clustered into 12 types based on the result walk-in-surveillance and the possible posture codes for each task type are defined. I was exposed that the poor postural problems in automobile assembly tasks were concerned in most part with arms, trunk and neck. Application of te developed schema to seven operations in automobile assembly tasks showed that the schema can be used as a tool to identify the operations and tasks involving highly stressful body postures. The schema can also be utilised as a basis to prioritise the candidate assembly operations for redesign of work methods.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.85-95
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and affecting factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WRMSD) among the directory assistance operators. Methods: One hundred eighty-five female subjects who worked more than one year as directory assistance operators in a telecommunication company were surveyed with self-administered questionnaires. Subjects were divided into disorder and control group by the NIOSH criterion about WRMSD, and then analyzed. Results: One hundred seventy two subjects (93%) had upper extremity symptoms and seventy subjects (37.8%) were WRMSD. the frequency order of the disorder area was the shoulder 60(32.4%), the neck 37(20.0%), the wrist 20(10.8%), the finger 20(10.8%) and the elbow 5(2.7%). It was found that the difference factors of the WRMSD group were education level (p<0.01), stress from the customers (p<0.01), satisfaction about monitor (p<0.05), temperature (p<0.05), noise (p<0.01), ventilation (p<0.001), working time (p<0.05), and recess (p<0.001). Conclusion: Improving working condition and education for the workers to control the stress are necessary to decrease the WRMSD for the directory assistance operators.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.167-175
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and factors on Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) symptoms in university students. Methods: This study was descriptive survey research. The subjects were 187 university students from one university. The exclusion criteria were 1) had GI surgery 2) had severe physiologic or psychologic problems 3) had liver, bile duct, pancreatic, and intestinal disease that required treatment. The ROME III was used to diagnose IBS. Sociodemographic characteristics, general health state by SF-36, psychological health by SCL-90-R, stress by perceived stress scale, sleep disturbance by Korean sleep scale, and diet habits were measured. Data were analyzed by using SPSS 17.0. Results: Seventeen students (9.1%) had IBS by ROME III criteria, but 46% had some GI problems at that time. Abdominal pain or discomfort continued for last six months or more in 14.3%. Fiber intake, obsessive-compulsiveness, hostility, psychoticism, global severity index, positive symptom distress, role physical, bodily pain, social functioning, and mental health were significantly different between IBS group and Non IBS group. Conclusion: Over nine percent of the students were diagnosed by Rome III criteria, and almost half of them had some GI problems. Diet, personality, general health state, and psychological health were factors of IBS.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.53-68
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• 2001

This study was performed to investigate the anti-depression effect of Guibiondamtang in rat model of depression. The rats in the experiment were stratified into 3 groups, ie, Guibiondamtang, saline, normal (non-stressed) groups. Chronic exposure to mild unpredictable stress such as white noise, flashing lights and restriction of food and water, causes the behavioral symptoms correspondent to depression. Consumption of 1% sucrose solution fell in rats exposed to CMS for 4 weeks. In the open field test , the exploratory activity ie. locomotion and centering decreased after CMS. We then evaluated the sucrose consumption and activity during 4 weeks of treatment with experimental drugs. The results were as follows: 1) There was no relation between sucrose intake and weight. 2) The Guibiondamtang(歸脾溫膽湯) group reinstated sucrose consumption within 5-6 weeks while having no influence on sucrose intake in normal group. 3) The Guibiondamtang(歸脾溫膽湯) group restored some exploratory activity in the open field test. 4) The Guibiondamtang-group had a-reduced potentiated startle response.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.119-125
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• 2004

Hemiplegic migraine is a typical symptom of general migraine. With this disorder, patients at any age can have a series of unilateral paralysis that would outlast a normal headache. It can be classified into three types, such as familiar hemiplegic migraine, sporadic hemiplegic migraine and unclassifiable hemiplegic migraine. Although it is known that normal hemiplegic migraine is associated with the gene on chromosome 19, the accurate cause and effective therapeutics have not been demonstrated yet. When a patient, subjected to this study complained unilateral hemiparesis and sensory disturbance with severe migraine and dysarthria, we thought that the direct cause of this symptoms was the stress. Therefore, we approached this disorder by focusing on the psychological aspect and finally gained a good result with Chilbok-yeum which releases the psychological irritation, so we report it for the better treatment.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.299-308
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• 2007

Hwabyung is an culture-bound anger syndrome in Korea. It consists of as one or more of a wide range of physical symptoms, in response to emotional stress. In this case, a 51-years woman complained neck pain and foreign body sensation in throat. We diagnosed her Hwabyung because her chief complaint occurred from stress in process of traffic accident. We classified her Soeumin in Sasang Constitutional Medicine, and used Hwanggigyeji-tang. And we encouraged her think positive and don't worry about little matters because Soeumin tend to think negative and wony about little matters. After treatment, her condition got improved. This report suggest that treatment method of Sasang Constitutional Medicine such as herb medicine and way of thinking is effective in treatment of Hwabyung patient.