• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.217-225
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• 2015

Objectives : The objective of this study was to compare the Korean Personality Rating Scale for Children (K-PRC) profile between children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and typically developing children. We also aimed to investigate the association of K-PRC and ADHD symptoms. Methods : Ninety-nine youth (age $8.3{\pm}2.4$ years, 72 boys) with ADHD and 84 controls (age $9.2{\pm}2.5$ years, 43 boys) were recruited from the Department of Pediatric Psychiatry of the Asan Medical Center Children's Hospital. Diagnoses of ADHD and comorbid psychiatric disorders were confirmed with the Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). The parents of the subjects completed the ADHD rating scale, and K-PRC. Independent t-tests, analysis of covariance, partial correlation analyses, and Mc Nemar test were used for analysis. Results : Children and adolescents with ADHD showed higher K-PRC scores in verbal development, physical development, depression, delinquency, hyperactivity, family dysfunction and psychoticism. Delinquency and hyperactivity were significantly correlated with parent-rated ADHD rating scales and ADHD scores on K-SADS-PL. The hyperactive/impulsive and combined subtypes showed higher scores on hyperactivity and delinquency than the inattentive subtype, and the inattentive subtype showed higher scores on depression and social dysfunction of the K-PRC. Conclusion : Our results suggest that K-PRC could be used to comprehensively evaluate symptoms, combined psychopathologies, developmental delay and family dysfunction of children with ADHD.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.182-189
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• 2007

Purpose : The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the growth and neuropsychologic function following treatments for pediatric hematologic and oncologic diseases. Healthy monozygotic twins served as ideal controls for comparison to exclude possible confounding factors. Methods : Seven children treated with various hematologic and oncologic diseases were included in the study: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL; n=2), Diamond-Blackfan anemia twins (n=2), and aplastic anemia (n=3). The median age at the diagnosis was 5.2 (0.3-15) years. The median duration of follow-up was 7.2 (4.9-10) years. Controls were healthy monozygotic twins. Growth was measured and the percentile channels were evaluated sequentially for patients. The K-WISC III was applied and compared in 5 pairs of patients and controls. Results : Similar growth profiles were noted for the twins. The percentiles at diagnosis was 3-10 in 3, 25-50 in 2, and 50-75 in 2 cases. All patients stayed in their growth percentiles through follow-up, except for 1 patient who became obese. For IQ tests, the mean behavioral, verbal and full scale IQ scores of patients were 88.0, 93.8, and 89.8, respectively, and those from their corresponding controls were 92.2, 97.0, and 91.7 (P>0.05). However, 2 children who were treated for ALL had lower IQ scores. Conclusion : Similar growth profiles were observed in the monozygotic twins in terms of height and weight. The IQ scores of patients were similar to those of monozygotic twins. However, prophylactic CNS-directed therapy for leukemia might adversely affect the IQ scores. A further prospective study on larger number of twins is warranted.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.676-687
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• 2020

Purpose To analyze the altered brain regions and intrinsic brain activity patterns in trauma-exposed firefighters without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Materials and Methods Resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) was performed for all subjects. Thirty-one firefighters over 40 years of age without PTSD (31 men; mean age, 49.8 ± 4.7 years) were included. Twenty-six non-traumatized healthy controls (HCs) (26 men; mean age, 65.3 ± 7.84 years) were also included. Voxel-based morphometry was performed to investigate focal differences in the brain anatomy. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis was performed to investigate differences in spontaneous brain characteristics. Results The mean z-scores of the Seoul Verbal Learning Test for immediate and delayed recall, Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) score for animals, and COWAT phonemic fluency were significantly lower in the firefighter group than in the HCs, indicating decreased neurocognitive function. Compared to HCs, firefighters showed reduced gray matter volume in the left superior parietal gyrus and left inferior temporal gyrus. Further, in contrast to HCs, firefighters showed alterations in rsfMRI values in multiple regions, including the fusiform gyrus and cerebellum. Conclusion Structural and resting-state functional abnormalities in the brain may be useful imaging biomarkers for identifying alterations in trauma-exposed firefighters without PTSD.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

Objectives: Cognitive impairment in restless legs syndrome (RLS) patients can be affected by sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression, which are common in RLS. The objective of this study is to investigate relationship between cognitive impairment and RLS in the non-medicated Korean elderly with controlling for psychiatric conditions. Method: The study sample for this study comprised 25 non-medicated Korean elderly RLS patients and 50 age-, sex-, and education- matched controls. All subjects were evaluated with comprehensive cognitive function assessment tools- including the Korean version of Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Packet (CERAD-K), severe cognitive impairment rating scale (SCIRS), frontal assessment battery (FAB), and clock drawing test (CLOX). Sleep quality and depression were also assessed with Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and geriatric depression scale (GDS). Results: PSQI and GDS score showed no difference between RLS and control group. There was no significant difference between two groups in nearly all the cognitive function except in constructional recognition test, in which subjects with RLS showed lower performance than control group (t=-2.384, p=0.02). Subjects with depression ($GDS{\geq}10$) showed significant cognitive impairment compared to control in verbal fluency, Korean version of Mini Mental Status Examination in the CERAD-K (MMSE-KC), word list memory, trail making test, and frontal assessment battery (FAB). In contrast, no difference was observed between subjects who have low sleep quality (PSQI>5) and control group. Conclusions: At the exclusion of the impact of insomnia and depression, cognitive function was found to be relatively preserved in RLS patients compared to control. Impairment of visual recognition in RLS patients can be explained in terms of dopaminergic dysfunction in RLS.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.103-114
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• 2001

Tourette's disorder is a disease which manifests one or more motor tics and vocal tics for more than a year. Chronic motor tic or vocal tic disorders are characterized by only one kind of tics for more than a year. We intended to investigate the clinical characteristics of the patients with chronic motor tic disorders or Tourette's disorders who had admitted from May 1, 1998 to May 1, 1999 to Seoul National University Hospital Child and Adolescent Psychiatry ward. In addition, we compared the clinical characteristics of the patients in order to elucidate the relationship between the two disorders. The patients with learning disabilities were selected as controls. There was no statistically significant difference between the onsets of the patients with chronic motor tic disorders(n=13, $7.3{\pm}2.5$ years), and Tourette's disorder(n=39, $7.2{\pm}2.2$ years), but with learning disability($4.2{\pm}1.9$ years). Also, the patients with chronic motor tic disorder and Tourette's disorder showed similar age at admission($11.7{\pm}2.7$ versus $11.5{\pm}2.6$ years), duration of admission($5.7{\pm}5.4$ versus $11.0{\pm}8.7$ weeks), mothers' ages at child birth($27.3{\pm}2.9$ versus $28.3{\pm}6.7$ years old),and fathers' age at child birth($32.2{\pm}3.2$ versus $33.3{\pm}5.2$ years old). We observed that those who had learning disabilities were alike in those aspects, except for age at visit to clinic($9.8{\pm}3.2$ years old). Family history of psychiatric illnesses(24.1% versus 46.2%), recognized precipitating factors(11.1% versus 35.7%) and response to pharmacological treatments(77.8% versus 76.9%) of the patients with chronic motor tic disorders and Tourette's disorders were observed and no differences were found. Comorbid patterns of diseases were noted. Intrafamilial conflicts were more common in the patients with learning disabilities than those with chronic tic disorders or Tourette's disorders. Precipitating factors were observed more frequent in chronic tic disorder and Tourette's disorder than learning disability. Neurocognitive profiles were investigated, and verbal IQs of the patients with chronic motor tic disorder, Tourette's disorder and learning disability were $92.3{\pm}10.7$, $94.7{\pm}14.9$, $94.3{\pm}13.8$, performance IQs $93.0{\pm}20.5$, $97.5{\pm}13.0$, $95.0{\pm}16.9$ and full-scale IQs $91.9{\pm}20.1$, $95.8{\pm}14.5$, $93.9{\pm}15.1$, respectively, which were found to be not significantly different. No difference was found in structural neurological abnormalities and EEG profiles. The patients with learning disabilities showed more common Bender-Gestalt test abnormalities. In conclusion, we have not found any affirmative clues for the division of chronic motor tic disorder and Tourette's disorder in clinical perspective.