• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.321-328
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• 2017

The aim of study was to identify factors influencing the self-confidence in the teacher's role on adolescent suicide. The cross-sectional descriptive study design was used. Participants were 318 teachers from elementary, middle, and high school in D city. Data were collected using questionnaires which included general characteristics, attitude toward adolescent suicide, knowledge about guideline for adolescent suicide prevention, and self-confidence in the teacher's role on adolescent suicide. Collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression with SPSS 21.0 program. The results of the regression analysis revealed that experience of suicide education, attitude, and knowledge about adolescent suicide were the significant factors affecting the self-confidence in teacher's role for adolescent suicide. The predictor variables explained 22.5% of variance regarding self-confidence in teacher's role for adolescent suicide. Findings indicate the factors should be used in developing effective intervention for enhancement of self-confidence in teacher's role on adolescent suicide.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2009

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of suicide impulse of residents living in mining region and other areas in one city. The past studies did not examine the suicide related attitudes or behaviors in mining region. This study also examines how coping resources and behaviors moderate the suicide impulse. Methods: For this purpose, hierarchical logistic regression method was used to predict the likelihood of suicide impulse. The personal characteristics, depression, coping resources and behaviors were considered as the independent variables. The data collected in this study was gathered through questionnaire survey with 502 residents in other areas as well as mining area in one city. Results and Conclusion: The results and conclusions are as follows: 1. The chi-square test revealed that residents living mining region showed higher percentage of suicide impulse compared to other areas. 2. The t-test revealed that those with suicide impulse had higher level of depression compared to those without it. This pattern was consistent in other areas as well as mining region. 3. The hierarchical logistic regression revealed that age, education, depression showed positive effect on suicide impulse in mining region. However, in other areas, education, illness, and depression showed positive effect on suicide impulse. Also, this result implies that suicide prevention efforts should be actively made in mining region.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.176-182
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• 2016

Objectives: Prospective evaluations of the associations between depressive symptoms and suicide deaths have been mainly performed in high-risk populations, such as individuals with psychiatric disorders or histories of self-harm. The purpose of this study was to prospectively examine whether more severe depressive symptoms assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were associated with a greater risk of death from suicide in a general-risk population. Methods: A total of 113 478 men from the Korean Veterans Health Study (mean age, 58.9 years) who participated in a postal survey in 2004 were followed up for suicide mortality until 2010. Results: Over 6.4 years of follow-up, 400 men died by suicide (56.7 deaths per 100 000 person-years). More severe depressive symptoms were associated with greater risk of suicide death (p for trend <0.001). The unadjusted hazard ratios (HRs) in comparison to the absence of depression were 2.18 for mild depression, 2.13 for moderate depression, 3.33 for severe depression, and 3.67 for extreme depression. After adjusting for potential confounders, men with a potential depressive disorder had an approximate 90% higher mortality from suicide (adjusted HR, 1.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.38 to 2.68; p<0.001) than men without depression. Each five-point increase in the GDS score was associated with a higher risk of death by suicide (adjusted HR, 1.22; p<0.001). The value of the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of GDS scores for suicide deaths was 0.61 (95% CI, 0.58 to 0.64). Conclusions: Depressive symptoms assessed using the GDS were found to be a strong independent predictor of future suicide. However, the estimate of relative risk was weaker than would be expected based on retrospective psychological autopsy studies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.87-90
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• 2018

Suicide has been a public health issue in many countries, and Korea has ranked highest suicide rate among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries over a decade. To address these issues, we updated the recent trends in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among Korean adults followed by previous data observation. We used data from five sources: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination (KNHANES, '07-12, '13, '15-16), Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS, '08-09, '13), Korean Wealth Panel Study (KOWEPS, '12-16), Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, '10-13), and cause of death data from Statistics Korea ('07-16). We used weighted frequencies and trend tests. The rate of suicidal ideation as recent year was 5.10% (KNHANES, '15), 8.95% (KCHS, '13), 2.08% (KOWEPS, '16), and 5.39% (KHP, '13). That of suicide attempts as recent year was 0.59% (KNHANES, '16), 0.41% (KCHS, '13), and 0.08% (KOWEPS, '16). Annual percentage change of suicidal ideation was -2.80% (KNHANES, '07-12), 5.78% (KNHANES, '13-15), 0.62% (KCHS, '08-13), -8.50% (KOWEPS, '12-16), and -10.94% (KHP, '10-13). Annual percentage change of suicide attempts was -3.84% (KNHANES, '07-12), 2.26% (KNHANES, '13-16), -2.53% (KCHS, '08-13), and -20.22% (KOWEPS, '12-16). Annual percentage change of death by intentional self-harm was -0.49% (Statistics Korea, '07-16). Individuals who had lower income level were more likely to experience suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. According to these results, the rate of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts showed the decreasing tendency. However, the suicide rate of Korea has remained higher than that of OECD countries. Thus, continuous data observation and effective policies on suicide are needed.

• Journal of the Korean society of biological therapies in psychiatry
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.129-141
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• 2018

Suicide is a behavior that is intended to cause death by itself and requires medical treatment, resulting in suicidal attempt or completion. Suicide causes loss of life, damages the body, costs a lot of medical expenses, and causes families to fall into sorrow and suffering therefore this suicide is a huge loss to family and society. There have been attempts to reduce and prevent suicide by understanding the mechanism of suicide. The mechanism of suicide can be thought of as psychological mechanism and biological mechanism. In the past, if we considered the psychological and biological mechanisms separately, the development of neuroscience now connects and integrates these two. Psychological factors affect biological factors and biological temperaments also affect perception or thinking about the situation and increase psychological vulnerability. Distant factors in suicidal behavior-such as childhood adversity and family and genetic predisposition-increase the lifetime risk of suicide. They alter the response to stress and other processes through changes in gene expression and regulation of emotional and behavioral characteristics. Distant factors affect the biological system and consequently changes in these systems can increase the risk of suicide. In other words, the distal factor does not directly induce suicidal behavior but rather acts indirectly through developmental or mediating factors. These mediating factors are impulsive aggressive and anxious trait, and chronic use of substances. The mechanism of this disorder is the abnormality of the serotonin system and the abnormality of the lipid level. Proximal factors are associated with the onset of suicide events and include changes in the major neurotransmitter systems, inflammatory changes, and dysfunction of glial cells in the brain. A series of studies, including a variety of research methods and postmortem and in-vivo imaging studies, show the impairment of the serotonergic neurotransmitter system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response system for suicidal behavior. These disorders lead to suicidal behavior due to difficulty in cognitive control of mood, pessimism, reactive aggression, abnormality in problem solving abilities, excessive response to negative social signals, severe emotional distress, and cognitive dysregulation of suicidal ideation.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.152-158
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• 2023

Objectives: This study examined the associations between Internet addiction and suicide and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among South Korean adolescents. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 1694 Korean adolescents. The suicidal Ideation Questionnaire and Deliberate Self-Harm Inventories were used to identify high-risk suicide and NSSI groups, respectively. Internet addiction was assessed using the Internet Addiction Scale. Other questionnaires included sociodemographic data, perceived academic stress, and daily life-related factors. We also performed a logistic regression analysis using the high suicide risk and NSSI groups as dependent variables. Results: The high suicide risk and NSSI prevalence rates among participants were 11.8% and 28.3%, respectively. A multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that Internet addiction is associated with higher suicide risk and NSSI. Additionally, being female and academic stress were significant suicide risk factors, while male participants had a higher NSSI prevalence. Conclusion: Our results suggest that monitoring adolescents' Internet use and providing education to prevent Internet addiction would lower high suicide and NSSI risk. Moreover, suicide and NSSI risk screening in adolescents with Internet addiction and providing suitable interventions will be essential for the preventing suicide and NSSI.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2023

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze correlations among searches of hwa-byung, depression, and suicide using big data. Methods: Keywords searches were performed using both Google Trends and Naver Data Lab on December 13, 2022. From 2016 to 2022, search results for keywords 'hwa-byung', 'depression', and 'suicide' were extracted with a score between 0 and 100 in terms of relative search popularity (RSP). Monthly time analysis, correlation analysis, and regional analysis were then conducted for these scores. Results: Regardless of the search period, RSP for both portal sites was in the order of 'suicide', 'depression', and 'hwa-byung'. Over time, search for 'depression' tended to increase in Google (slope: 0.0092), whereas search for 'hwa-byung' showed a slight increase in Naver (slope: 0.0024). Correlation coefficient for search terms 'depression' and 'suicide' was 0.3969 in Google Trends and 0.4459 in Naver Data Lab, showing clear positive correlations. On the other hand, there was little correlation between search results of 'hwa-byung' and 'depression' or between 'hwa-byung' and 'suicide'. However, compared to males, females showed higher positive associations between search results of 'hwa-byung' and 'depression' and between 'hwa-byung' and 'suicide'. Search terms 'depression' and 'suicide' showed high RSPs in most regions in South Korea. However, 'hwa-byung' had distinct regional differences in terms of RSP. Conclusions: Results of this study will help us understand Korean public's perception of the relevance of hwa-byung, depression, and suicide and plan future research in this topic. In addition, findings of this study may provide future public health implications for reducing the high suicide rate in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.97-117
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• 2007

The goal of this study was to find out how prepared Korean high school teachers are to identify suicidal students and connect them to appropriate resources. This study surveyed 390 high school teachers in terms of their level of knowledge on youth suicide and their misconception on suicide. In addition, this study examined what kind of actions they usually take once they identify suicidal students. Results indicated that high school teachers in Korea did not have sufficient knowledge to identify suicidal students and they did not think they are capable of identifying those students. Although their misconception on youth suicide was not as pervasive as expected, some of the misconception were still problematic in relation to suicide intervention. Furthermore, their intervention strategies for suicidal students were quite limited, focusing on isolated individual efforts. It is critical to develop and implement teacher training programs for youth suicide prevention which address suicide risk factors, warning signs, crisis response, and referral procedures.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2024

Background: Although Korea ranks first in the suicide rate of elderly individuals, there is limited research on those who attempt suicide, with preventive measures largely based on population-based studies. We compared the demographic and clinical characteristics of elderly individuals who attempted suicide with those of younger adults who visited the emergency department after suicide attempts and identified the factors associated with lethality in the former group. Methods: Individuals who visited the emergency department after a suicide attempt from April 1, 2017, to January 31, 2020, were included. Participants were classified into two groups according to age (elderly, ≥65 years; adult, 18-64 years). Among the 779 adult patients, 123 were elderly. We conducted a chi-square test to compare the demographic and clinical features between these groups and a logistic regression analysis to identify the risk factors for lethality in the elderly group. Results: Most elderly participants were men, with no prior psychiatric history or suicide attempts, and had a higher prevalence of underlying medical conditions and attributed their attempts to physical illnesses. Being sober and planning suicide occurred more frequently in this group. In the elderly group, factors that increased the mortality rate were biological male sex (p<0.05), being accompanied by family members (p<0.05), and poisoning as a suicide method (p<0.01). Conclusion: Suicide attempts in elderly individuals have different characteristics from those in younger adults and are associated with physical illness. Suicides in the former group are unpredictable, deliberate, and fatal. Therefore, tailored prevention and intervention strategies addressing the characteristics of those who are elderly and attempt suicide are required.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.228-239
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• 2024

Purpose: This retrospective study was conducted to identify factors associated with repeated suicide attempts by analyzing the electronic medical records of suicide attempters who visited emergency medical centers due to drug intoxication. Methods: Data from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 were collected for this study and analyzed using SPSS/WIN 25.0. Results: In this study, the factors affecting repeated suicide attempts among individuals who visited the emergency medical center due to acute drug intoxication were the presence or absence of psychiatric diseases, the season of drug intoxication, and age. In order to identify the factors affecting repeated suicide attempts in those who presented with acute drug intoxication, logistic regression analysis was performed by inputting psychiatric diseases, season of drug intoxication, and age, all of which exhibited significant differences between those who did and did not attempt suicide again. The presence of psychiatric diseases (odds ratio [OR] = 1.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.04~3.80), intoxication occurring in the fall (vs. spring; OR = 3.35, 95% CI = 1.28~8.75), and age ≥ 65 (vs. those under the age of 18; OR = 12.96, 95% CI = 2.02~83.17). The regression model was found to be statistically significant (F = 30.01, p < .001), and the coefficient of determination of Cox and Snell, which represents the explanatory power of the model, was 12.0%. Conclusion: This study suggests that to prevent repeated suicide attempts, it is necessary to develop a tool to evaluate the risk of suicide, use it to evaluate the risk of suicide, and then manage individuals accordingly.