• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.185-189
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• 2023

Purpose: Limited research has been conducted on the prevalence of non-medical opioid use (NMOU) in Korean cancer patients who have received prescription opioids (PO). This study aimed to identify the potential proportion of NMOU in cancer patients who had been prescribed opioids in Korea. Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted on 14,728 patients who underwent cancer-related treatment between January 2009 and December 2019, using electronically collected data from a tertiary hospital in Korea. Information regarding the type and duration of opioid use was gathered. A detailed review of medical charts was carried out, focusing on patients who had been prescribed opioids for over 60 days beyond a 12-month period following the completion of their cancer treatment (long-term PO users). Results: Out of the 5,587 patients who were prescribed PO and followed up for at least 12 months, 13 cases of NMOU were identified, representing 0.23% of the patient population. Among the 204 long-term PO users, the rate was 6.37% (13/204). The most commonly misused opioids were oxycodone and fentanyl. For the group confirmed to have NMOU, the median duration of prescription was 1,327 days in total. Of the 13 patients diagnosed with NMOU, 9 reported withdrawal symptoms, 3 exhibited craving behavior for opioids, and 1 experienced both symptoms. Conclusion: This study found that 0.23% of cancer patients who had been prescribed opioids in Korea demonstrated NMOU. Despite this relatively low rate, careful monitoring is necessary to minimize the risk of NMOU in this population, especially among long-term PO users.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.102-110
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• 1987

One of the familiar medical facility that most people reach easily in Korea is the drug store. In Korea, it is possible to purchase all kinds of common drugs without physician's prescriptions, which caused some problems. In other words, such treatment without professional supervision has led to medical, social and economical problems. In view of the above, this study is aimed at revealing the actual status of long-term use of drugs in some urban residents. Long-term use of drugs is operationally defined as using certain drugs at least once a week for more than 3 months. This survey took the residents of Guro 6-Dong where was one of the target areas for Community Health Development Project managed by Korea University as a target population. A sample of 1,517 residents was selected by the multistage sampling method. The interview was conducted on September 21st and 22nd in 1985. The object of this study was to compare the result with that of the rural area which was obtained by the same method, tools and research team, prior to this study in 1984. The results were as follows; 1) The age-standardization of the study showed that 97 per 1,000 urban residents were actually on long-term drug use. The prevalance of long-term use is high in accordance with aging and low with education level. 2) Out of 1,000 urban samples the most popular item involved in the long-term drug use was antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drug (26), and next in order was vitamin (23), antibiotics (13), digestives (10) and antacids (7). In the rural samples as for compare, that was antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drug (100), antacids (36), digestives (23), adrenocortical hormones (12) etc. 3) With antipyrctic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drugs, 50% of the urban samples were taking for more than a year, whereas such were 82.7% of the rural samples. Using such a high percentage of antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflamatory drugs in the rural residents is probably due to the high prevalence rate of musculo-skeletal diseases. 4) The urban long-term drug users of antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drugs were influenced mostly by the mass media (43.6%), next in order was pharmacist (35.9%) and physician (10.3%). Comparing with the result from the rural areas the role of mass media was much more influencial in the urban areas. 60% of them consulted with pharmacists, 14.3% with physicians and 25.7% had no history of consultation in the urban samples. 5) Considering the incidence of knowing the possible side-effects of each drug, 28.2% of the urban residents had no recognition about side-effects prior to use antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drugs. In the rural residents, 29.67o had no knowledge about the side-effects before using the drug. 6) For the solution of the above problems, it is necessary to limit the advertisement of some drugs by the parmaceutical company. And therapeutic drugs which may bring on side effects in case of long-term use should not be sold at drug stores without physician's prescription.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.236-244
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• 2003

Summary: The analysis of human genetic variation is one of the key issues far the understanding of the different drug response among individuals and many programs are developed for this purpose. However, current publicly available programs have so many limitations such as time complexity problem for the analysis of large amount of alleles or SNPs, difficult manipulation for installation, data import, and usage, and low-quality visual output. Here we present workbench for SNP anlaysis, SNPAnalyzer. SNPAnalyzer consists of 3 main modules: 1)Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium ,2) Haplotype Estimation, and 3) Linkage Disequilibrium. Each module has several different widely-used algorithms for the extensive analysis and can handle large amount of alleles and SNPs with simple format. Analysis results are displayed in user-friendly formats such as table, graph and map. SNPAnalyzer is developed using C and C$^{++}$ and users can easily access through web-interftce. Availability: SNPAnalyzer can be freely implemented at http://www.istech.info/istech/board/login_form.jsp

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.109-117
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• 2020

An edutainment system aims to help learners to recognize problems effectively, grasp and classify important information needed to solve the problems and convey the contents of what they have learned. Edutainment contents can be usefully applied to education and training in the both scientific and industrial areas. Our present work proposes an edutainment system that can be applied to a drug discovery process including virtual screening by using intuitive multi-modal interfaces. In this system, a stereoscopic monitor is used to make three-dimensional (3D) macro-molecular images, with supporting multi-modal interfaces to manipulate 3D models of molecular structures effectively. In this paper, our system can easily solve a docking simulation function, which is one of important virtual drug screening methods, by applying gaming factors. The level-up concept is implemented to realize a bio-game approach, in which the gaming factor depends on number of objects and users. The quality of the proposed system is evaluated with performance comparison in terms of a finishing time of a drug docking process to screen new inhibitors against target proteins of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in an e-drug discovery process.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.157-169
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• 2004

We have conducted questionnaire and measured serum kidney function tests on 156 patients whom have received a treatment at a local Oriental medicine clinic in Seoul from Sept. 1, 2002 to Dec. 31, 2002. Patients were categorized into five groups. The groups are control(10 samples), herbal extract group(41 samples), herbal pills group(5samples), western medicines(45samples), and combination group(55 samples). This study was conducted to investigate how these treatment methods can affect the kidney functions. Following results were obtained : 1) Most of the research subjects were male(103 individuals) living in large urban area, with a drinking habit, highly educated, and with normal marriage. For the treatment history, 45 individuals received western medicine treatment(28.85%), 46 with Oriental medicine(29.49%), and 55patients (35.26%) experienced both forms of the treatment. 2) For measuring Mean(SD) of serum kidney functions for all the research subjects, Bun was 12.16(3.90)g/dl, 0.51(0.19) g/dl for Creatinine, and 4.64(1.49)g/dl for Uric acid. All the measurements were within the normal range. 3) Confounding variables which may affect the kidney functions such as age, smoking, drinking, occupation, and residency were eliminated in calculation and no significant differences were witnessed between the control and experiment groups. 4) In measuring affects of treatment duration on the kidney functions, no statistical significances were shown in multiple regression's ${\beta}(SE)$ values. 5) Correlations affecting the kidney functions are duration of drinking, drinking volume per round, drinking volume per week, smoking, gender, and age difference caused significant correlations. From the above results, we can deduce that taking herbal and western medicine didn't cause significant effects between the control and experiment groups in the kidney functions. Further research is needed in this field to verify this evidence by adding odds ratios and etc.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.76-83
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• 2001

This study was designed to determine serum osmolality and to investigate the association among serum osmolality, health-related factors and biochemical indices. Two hundred thirty seven elderly(86 male, 151 female : mean age 73.8) residing in the chungbuk area participated. Sociodemographic data and self-perceived health status were obtained by interview, and biochemical parameters were measured. The mean serum osmolaity was 301.2$\pm$10.1 mOsm/kg(range 240.8~328.9 mOsm/kg) and serum osmolality of the females(302.4 mOsm/kg) was significantly(p＜0.05) higher than that of the males(299.0 mOsm/kg). Only 11.0% of the elderly were within the accepted normal range(280~295 mOsm/kg) and the majority of the subjects were in a hyperosmolar state(60.8% : 296~307 mOsm/kg). It was observed that serum osmolality was reduced with increasing age but not statistically significant. There was no significant difference in serum osmolality according to marital status. Serum osmolality was significantly lower(p＜0.05) in the elderly with higher self-perceived health scores than the elderly with lower self-perceived health scores, however no significant difference was observed between the presence or absence of disease. Serum osmolality tended to be higher(p=0.06) in the elderly with difficulty in mobility than the elderly who have no problem in mobility. Serum osmolality tended to be higher(p=0.06) among drug users compared to that of non-users. There was a significant association between serum osmolality and serum albumin in females but not in males. Significant associations were shown between serum osmolality and serum transferrin in both sexes. However, there was no significant correlation between serum osmolality and hemoglobin or hematocrit except with hematocrit in females only. The results of this study indicated that the elderly were dehydrated and hydration state seems to influence health status and, the elderly should be encouraged to drink an adequate amount of fluids. Also, the hydration state is required to be assessed and considered for the interpretation of biochemical parameters.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.93-103
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• 2009

A Serious Game helps the learners to recognize the problems effectively, grasp and classify important information needed to solve the problems and convey the contents of what they have learned. Owing not only to this game-like fun but also to the educational effect, The Serious Game can be usefully applied to education and training in the areas of scientific technology and industrial technology. This study proposes the Serious Game that users can apply to biotechnology by using intuitive multi-modal interfaces. In this study, a stereoscopic monitor is used to make three dimensional molecular structures, and multi-modal interface is used to efficiently control. Based on a such system, this study easily solved the docking simulation function, which is one of the important experiments, by applying these game factors. For this, we suggested the level-up concept as a game factor that depends on numbers of objects and users. The proposed system was evaluated in performance comparison in result time of a new drug design process on AIDS virus with previous approach.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.23-32
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• 2023

Interest in Serious Games for Healthcare (SGHs) that can improve health through games is increasing. Digital Therapeutics (DTx) is a treatment that must be approved for effectiveness and safety, so it should follow the traditional drug distribution method, but SGHs are wellness products that are more flexible in terms of adoption and diffusion than DTx. SGHs are effective because it can provide customized services through continuous monitoring and feedback. When SGHs are applied to cognitive impairment treatment or behavioral correction, malfunctions and side effects are minor. This study developed research model based on the Valence Framework, gathered data from 142 undergraduates, and demonstrated that only the perceived benefits have a statistically significant positive (+) effect on SGHs acceptance intentions. Based on these results, this study suggests that SGHs companies should promote benefits in accepting SGHs for general users and they need for a distribution and analytics platform strategy based on a data-driven approach.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 2024

Background: Failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) is a chronic condition that is characterized by persistent back pain following one or more spinal surgeries. Pharmacological interventions, such as the use of opioids and gabapentinoids, are frequently used in the treatment of FBSS. However, prolonged and excessive use of these medications can lead to dependence and adverse effects. This study investigates trends in opioid and gabapentinoid prescriptions among patients with FBSS in Korea from 2016 to 2020. Methods: Data from the Health Insurance and Review Agency were analyzed, and claims listing FBSS were selected for the study. Prescription patterns of opioids and gabapentinoids were classified based on the number of days prescribed per year. Results: Of the 390,095 patients diagnosed with FBSS, 41.6% of the patients were prescribed gabapentinoids, and 42.0% of them were prescribed opioids, while 10.6% of the patients were classified as long-term gabapentinoid users, 11.4% as long-term opioid users, and 7.4% of the patients were found to have long-term prescriptions for both drugs. The proportion of patients who received both gabapentinoid and opioid prescriptions increased annually. The doses of opioids prescribed have also increased along with the increase in the number of patients receiving opioid prescriptions. Conclusions: The prescription rates of opioids and gabapentinoids among patients with FBSS in Korea continue to increase steadily, posing potential risks of addiction and adverse effects. Further research is needed to better understand the actual status of addiction in patients with FBSS.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.519-526
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• 2020

Methamphetamine (MA) is one of the most commonly abused drugs in the world by illegal drug users. Addiction to MA is a serious public health problem and effective therapies do not exist to date. It has also been reported that behavior induced by psychostimulants such as MA is related to histone deacetylase (HDAC). MeBib is an HDAC6 inhibitor derived from a benzimidazole scaffold. Many benzimidazole-containing compounds exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activity. In this study, we investigated whether HDAC6 inhibitor MeBib modulates the behavioral response in MA self-administered rats. Our results demonstrated that the number of active lever presses in MA self-administered rats was reduced by pretreatment with MeBib. In the hippocampus of rats, we also found MA administration promotes GluN2B, an NMDA receptor subunit, expression, which results in sequential activation of ERK/CREB/BDNF pathway, however, MeBib abrogated it. Collectively, we suggest that MeBib prevents the MA seeking response induced by MA administration and therefore, represents a potent candidate as an MA addiction inhibitor.