• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.383-387
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• 2012

Purpose: Although benign rolandic epilepsy (BRE) is a benign condition, it may be associated with a spectrum of behavioral, psychiatric, and cognitive disorders. This study aimed to assess the cognitive and other neuropsychological profiles of children with BRE. Methods: In total, 23 children with BRE were consecutively recruited. All children underwent sleep electroencephalography (EEG) and were assessed on a battery of comprehensive neuropsychological tests including the Korean versions of the Wechsler intelligence scale for children III, frontal executive neuropsychological test, rey complex figure test, Wisconsin card sorting test, attention deficit diagnostic scale, and child behavior checklist scale. Results: The study subjects included 13 boys and 10 girls aged $9.0{\pm}1.6$ years. Our subjects showed an average monthly seizure frequency of $0.9{\pm}0.7$, and a majority of them had focal seizures (70%). The spike index (frequency/min) was $4.1{\pm}5.3$ (right) and $13.1{\pm}15.9$ (left). Of the 23 subjects, 9 showed frequent spikes (>10/min) on the EEG. The subjects had normal cognitive and frontal executive functions, memory, and other neuropsychological sub-domain scores, even though 8 children (35%) showed some evidence of learning difficulties, attention deficits, and aggressive behavior. Conclusion: Our data have limited predictive value; however, these data demonstrate that although BRE appears to be benign at the onset, children with BRE might develop cognitive, behavioral, and other psychiatric disorders during the active phase of epilepsy, and these problems may even outlast the BRE. Therefore, we recommend scrupulous follow-up for children with BRE.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.131-142
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the personality traits and cognitive characteristics of the Sasang constitution by comparing the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and Stroop Test. Methods: One hundred and six healthy subjects (age 20 to 40) were analyzed; 45 Taeeumin, 30 Soyangin and 31 Soeumin. The Sasang constitution was diagnosed by a sasang constitutional medicine specialist based on the results of a Two Step Questionnaire for Sasang Constitution Diagnosis (TS-QSCD), the external appearance, temperament and symptoms. The results of the EPQ, TCI, CPT and Stroop Test were compared between Sasang constitutions. Results: Among the seven dimensions of EPQ, Taeeumin and Soyangin scored significantly higher than Soeumin in Extraversion. Soyangin scored significantly higher than Soeumin in Impulsiveness. Among the four temperament dimensions of TCI, Taeeumin and Soyangin scored significantly higher than Soeumin in novelty seeking, reward dependence and persistence. Soeumin scored significantly higher than Taeeumin and Soyangin in harm avoidance. Among the three character dimensions of TCI, Soyangin scored significantly higher than Taeeumin in self transcendence. The results for CPT showed no significant differences between sasang constitutions. Taeeumin had a significantly higher color score in the stroop test than Soeumin. Conclusions: The personality tests showed significant differences between Sasang constitutions, but the neuropsychological test did not show any differences. Further studies should be performed to identify neuropsychological differences between Sasang constitutions.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2011

Purpose: To investigate the clinical characteristics of late-onset epilepsy combined with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the relationship between certain types of electroencephalography (EEG) abnormalities in ASD and associated neuropsychological problems. Methods: Thirty patients diagnosed with ASD in early childhood and later developed clinical seizures were reviewed retrospectively. First, the clinical characteristics, language and behavioral regression, and EEG findings of these late-onset epilepsy patients with ASD were investigated. The patients were then classified into 2 groups according to the severity of the EEG abnormalities in the background rhythm and paroxysmal discharges. In the severe group, EEG showed persistent asymmetry, slow and disorganized background rhythms, and continuous sharp and slow waves during slow sleep (CSWS). Results: Between the two groups, there was no statistically significant difference in mean age (P=0.259), age of epilepsy diagnosis (P=0.237), associated family history (P=0.074), and positive abnormal magnetic resonance image (MRI) findings (P=0.084). The severe EEG group tended to have more neuropsychological problems (P=0.074). The severe group statistically showed more electrographic seizures in EEG (P=0.000). Rett syndrome was correlated with more severe EEG abnormalities (P=0.002). Although formal cognitive function tests were not performed, the parents reported an improvement in neuropsychological function on the follow up checkup according to a parent's questionnaire. Conclusion: Although some ASD patients with late-onset epilepsy showed severe EEG abnormalities, including CSWS, they generally showed an improvement in EEG and clinical symptoms in the longterm follow up. In addition, severe EEG abnormalities tended to be related to the neuropsychological function.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.275-282
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the psychiatric comorbidity status of adult patients diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and determine the impact of comorbidities on neuropsychological outcomes in ADHD. Methods: The study participants were 124 adult patients with ADHD. Clinical psychiatric assessments were performed by two board-certified psychiatrists in accordance with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. All participants were assessed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus version 5.0.0 to evaluate comorbidities. After screening, neuropsychological outcomes were assessed using the Comprehensive Attention Test (CAT) and the Korean version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (K-WAIS-IV). Results: Mood disorders (38.7%) were the most common comorbidity of ADHD, followed by anxiety (18.5%) and substance use disorders (13.7%). The ADHD with comorbidities group showed worse results on the Perceptual Organization Index and Working Memory Index sections of the K-WAIS than the ADHD-alone group (p=0.015 and p=0.024, respectively). In addition, the presence of comorbidities was associated with worse performance on simple visual commission errors in the CAT tests (p=0.024). Conclusion: These findings suggest that psychiatric comorbidities are associated with poor neuropsychological outcomes in adult patients with ADHD, highlighting the need to identify comorbidities in these patients.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

Purpose: Despite poor cognitive function in heart failure (HF), few studies have examined cognition and its probable implication in self-care among Korean HF patients. The purposes of this study were (1) to describe cognition in the domains of global, memory, and executive functions, (2) to explore the relationship between cognition and self-care, and (3) to determine the amount of dietary sodium intake among Korean HF patients. Methods: A pilot study was conducted: 7 HF patients (3 men, mean age 68 years) completed face-to-face interviews for neuropsychological tests of cognition and self-care including dietary sodium intake. Results: More than half of the patients had impaired global cognition, memory, or executive function; patients with more severe HF were at higher risk of poor cognitive function. Korean HF patients exhibited poor self-care, with a high dietary sodium intake (5.6 g/day), approximately twice more than the suggested guideline of 2~3 g/day for patients with stable HF. Conclusion: Cognitive dysfunction and inadequate self-care with noncompliance with dietary sodium restriction were evident in Korean HF patients. More studies are warranted that examine the prevalence of cognitive impairment and areas of deficit using neuropsychological tests in a larger sample and that examine how cognition affects self-care and compliance in salt-intake.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2000

Objectives: The Psychopathology of schizophrenia was expected to be related with focal dysfunction of brain while schizophrenia is recognized and studied as the brain disease. Authors studied correlation between neuropsychological tests and delusion which is representative symptom of schizophrenia in patients with head trauma and psychiatric patients in order to explore the functional localization of brain in delusional symptom. Methods: Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery and Korean Weschler Intelligent Scale and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory(MMPI) were administered to one hundred ninteen patients consisted of sixty nine psychiatric patients and fifty patients with brain damage. We tested correlation between results of neuropsychological tests and delusional scale made from twenty four items related with delusion in MMPI. T-test between eighteen higher delusion scorers and twenty one lower scorers was examed in psychiatric group. Results: In brain damage group, signigicant correlations were found in the tests related with function of frontal lobe such as category test, trail making AB test, tactual performance test, digit symbol test and fingertip number writing test, and significant correlations were also noted in the tests related with function of left temporal and parietal lobes such as information, comprehension, vocabulary, similarities and speech sound perception test. The tests related with the function of right hemisphere such as tactual performance test location, picture completion and performance, and the tests related with subcortical function such as arithmetic, digit span, attention, digit symbol test, digit symbol and trail making AB test were signigicantly corelated with delusional scale too. In psychiatric group there were significant difference of delusional score in the tests related with function of left hemisphere such as vocabulary, vocable IQ, comprehension and language, and in the tests related with subcortical function such as N 120 voltage, digit symbol and arithmetic. Conclusions: Delusion seems to be related with function of frontal lobe, left hemisphere and subcortex in both groups. Right hemisphere may be also partially related with delusion.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.194-201
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• 1998

Objectives : This study was aimed to investigate the differences in intelligence and neuropsychological test findings between patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD) and normal controls, and to find out brain functions. Methods : To examine the brain functions, Halsted Reitan neuropsychological test, computerized neuropsychological test, Wechsler Memory scale and K-WAIS were applied. Subjects of this study consisted of 12 patients with OCD and 17 normal controls who were matched for age, handedness and education year. Results : The verbal intelligence of OCD was significantly higher than that of normal controls. But there was no significant difference in total and performance intelligence between groups. The total time of tactual performance test in OCD was significantly delayed than that in normal controls. Also the visual recall of Wechsler memory scale in OCD was more impaired than that in normal controls. Conclusion : These findings support that visual-spatial memory, which is related to basal ganglia, is impaired in OCD.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.125-135
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• 2021

Objective : This study aimed to validate the Korean version of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status Update (K-RBANS). Methods : We performed a retrospective analysis of 283 psychiatric and neurosurgery patients. To investigate the convergent validity of the K-RBANS, correlation analyses were performed for other intelligence and neuropsychological test results. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test a series of alternative plausible models of the K-RBANS. To analyze the various capabilities of the K-RBANS, we compared the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC). Results : Significant correlations were observed, confirming the convergent validity of the K-RBANS among the Total Scale Index (TSI) and indices of the K-RBANS and indices of intelligence (r=0.47-0.81; p<0.001) and other neuropsychological tests at moderate and above significance (r=0.41-0.63; p<0.001). Additionally, the results testing the construct validity of the K-RBANS showed that the second-order factor structure model (model 2, similar to an original factor structure of RBANS), which includes a first-order factor comprising five index scores (immediate memory, visuospatial capacity, language, attention, delayed memory) and one higher-order factor (TSI), was statistically acceptable. The comparative fit index (CFI) (CFI, 0.949) values and the goodness of fit index (GFI) (GFI, 0.942) values higher than 0.90 indicated an excellent fit. The root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA) (RMSEA, 0.082) was considered an acceptable fit. Additionally, the factor structure of model 2 was found to be better and more valid than the other model in χ2 values (Δχ2=7.69, p<0.05). In the ROC analysis, the AUCs of the TSI and five indices were 0.716-0.837, and the AUC of TSI (AUC, 0.837; 95% confidence interval, 0.760-0.896) was higher than the AUCs of the other indices. The sensitivity and specificity of TSI were 77.66% and 78.12%, respectively. Conclusion : The overall results of this study suggest that the K-RBANS may be used as a valid tool for the brief screening of neuropsychological patients in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2009

Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is characterized by severe neuropathic pain and disability, which can result in psychological and behavioral dysfunction. The goal of the present study was to evaluate neurocognitive disability, and to assess the relationship between clinical variables and neuropsychological features in CRPS patients. Methods: We investigated the neuropsychological features of 15 CRPS I patients. The neuropsychological tests that we made comprised of a full intelligence quotient, memory quotient, trail-making test A, trail-making test B (TMT-B), and MMPI (Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory). Results: The results showed severe disability in performance on TMT-B. There was no significant correlation between specific cognitive variables and MMPI scales. Conclusions: Decreased performance on TMT-B which shows mental flexibility in the prefrontal lobe exists independently from depressive disorders in CRPS patients.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.315-324
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• 2022

Objective : The aim of this study was to verify the equivalence and effectiveness of the tablet-administered Korean Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (K-RBANS) for the prevention and early detection of dementia. Methods : Data from 88 psychiatry and neurology patient samples were examined to evaluate the equivalence between tablet and paper administrations of the K-RBANS using a non-randomly equivalent group design. We calculated the prediction scores of the tablet-administered K-RBANS based on demographics and covariate-test scores for focal tests using norm samples and tested format effects. In addition, we compared the receiver operating characteristic curves to confirm the effectiveness of the K-RBANS for preventing and detecting dementia. Results : In the analysis of raw scores, line orientation showed a significant difference (t=-2.94, p<0.001), and subtests showed small to large effect sizes (0.04-0.86) between paper- and tablet-administered K-RBANS. To investigate the format effect, we compared the predicted scaled scores of the tablet sample to the scaled scores of the norm sample. Consequently, a small effect size (d≤0.20) was observed in most of the subtests, except word list and story recall, which showed a medium effect size (d=0.21), while picture naming and subtests of delayed memory showed significant differences in the one-sample t-test. In addition, the area under the curve of the total scale index (TSI) (0.827; 95% confidence interval, 0.738-0.916) was higher than that of the five indices, ranging from 0.688 to 0.820. The sensitivity and specificity of TSI were 80% and 76%, respectively. Conclusion : The overall results of this study suggest that the tablet-administered K-RBANS showed significant equivalence to the norm sample, although some subtests showed format effects, and it may be used as a valid tool for the brief screening of patients with neuropsychological disorders in Korea.