• 생물정신의학
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.149-158
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• 2009

Objectives : This study was designed to investigate the association of schizophrenia and P1320, P1325, P1635, P1655, P1763 and SNP A polymorphisms on dystrobrevin binding protein 1(DTNBP1) gene in Korean patients. Methods : We analyzed P1320, P1325, P1635, P1655, P1763 and SNP A polymorphisms on DTNBP1 gene from their DNAs extracted from their blood in 388 Korean schizophrenic patients (male 198, female 190) and 372 control subjects(male 247, female 125). We compared the differences of genotype and allele distributions of the six polymorphisms on DTNBP1 gene between the Korean schizophrenic patient group and the normal control group. Results : There were no statistically significant differences of genotype and allele distributions of the P1320, P1325, P1635, P1655, P1763 and SNP A polymorphisms on DTNBP1 gene between the schizophrenic patient group and the normal control group. Conclusion : The results of this study suggest that P1320, P1325, P1635, P1655, P1763 and SNP A polymorphism on DTNBP1 gene do not have influence on the risk of the schizophnenic in the Korean population.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.155-164
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• 2004

Objective:The present study examined the association between basic neurocognitive functions and emotional recognition in chronic schizophrenia. Furthermore, to Investigate cognitive variable related to emotion recognition in Schizophrenia. Methods:Forty eight patients from the Yongin Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center were evaluated for neurocognitive function, and Emotional Recognition Test which has four subscales finding emotional clue, discriminating emotions, understanding emotional context and emotional capacity. Measures of neurocognitive functioning were selected based on hypothesized relationships to perception of emotion. These measures included:1) Letter Number Sequencing Test, a measure of working memory;2) Word Fluency and Block Design, a measure of executive function;3) Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Korean version, a measure of verbal memory;4) Digit Span, a measure of immediate memory;5) Span of Apprehension Task, a measure of early visual processing, visual scanning;6) Continuous Performance Test, a measure of sustained attention functioning. Correlation analyses between specific neurocognitive measures and emotional recognition test were made. To examine the degree to which neurocognitive performance predicting emotional recognition, hierarchical regression analyses were also made. Results:Working memory, and verbal memory were closely related with emotional discrimination. Working memory, Span of Apprehension and Digit Span were closely related with contextual recognition. Among cognitive measures, Span of Apprehension, Working memory, Digit Span were most important variables in predicting emotional capacity. Conclusion:These results are relevant considering that emotional information processing depends, in part, on the abilities to scan the context and to use immediate working memory. These results indicated that mul- tifaceted cognitive training program added with Emotional Recognition Task(Cognitive Behavioral Rehabilitation Therapy added with Emotional Management Program) are promising.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.104-109
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• 2004

Objectives:Abnormalities in neurotrophic factors that regulate neuronal development and synaptic plasticity are often implicated as some causes of schizophrenia. In previous studies, researchers reported that brain and serum BDNF levels underwent similar changes during maturation and aging processes in rats. They also found a positive correlation between serum and cortical BDNF levels. In this study, we investigated whether the serum levels of BDNF in Korean schizophrenic patients would be different from those of healthy controls. Methods:Using an ELISA kit, serum BDNF levels were assessed in schizophrenic group(N=49) and control group(N=50). Results:Serum BDNF levels in the schizophrenic group($36.29{\pm}19.78$ng/ml) were significantly higher than those in control group($22.4{\pm}14.4$ng/ml). The BDNF levels did not correlate with duration of treatment, age or daily dose of antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia. Conclusions:This result suggests that schizophrenia is characterized by high serum BDNF levels and supports the hypothesis of neurotrophic factor involvement in psychotic disorder. Serum BDNF level is likely to be one of the possible biological markers for schizophrenia.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.127-135
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• 2010

Objectives : This study was conducted to compare between hallucination group and delusion group in patient with schizophrenia, using Brain $^{99m}Tc$-ECD PECT. Methods : Among 16 patients with less than 3 schizophrenic episodes, 8 patients whose initial symptom was hallucination were assigned to the hallucination group, and other 8 patients with initial sumptom of delusion were assinged to the hallucination group. All of the patients clinically evaluated using the PANSS and BPRS. Both groups of patients and 8 healthy subjects underwent $^{99m}Tc$-ECD PECT. Results : Score of thinking disturbance subscale of BPRS were significantly lower in the hallucination group than the delusion group. In SPECT analysis, the hallucination group showed significantly increased perfusion in some areas of the right temporal lobe, bilateral limbic lobes and left parietal lobe compared to delusion group. Both group had a reduced rCBF in some areas of the frontal lobe. Conclusion : The hallucniation group, compared with the delusion group, showed significantly increased regional cerebral blood flow in some regions. Therefore, this data suggests that different neural substrates may affect the process of auditory hallucination and delusion.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.208-219
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• 2001

The pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia exhibits wide inter-individual variabilities in clinical efficacy and adverse effects. Recently, human genetic diversity has been known as one of the essential factors to the variation in human drug response. This suggests that drug therapy should be tailored to the genetic characteristics of the individual. Pharmacogenetics is the field of investigation that attempts to elucidate genetic basis of an individual's responses to pharmacotherapy, considering drug effects divided into two categories as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The emerging field of pharmacogenomics, which focuses on genetic determinants of drug response at the level of the entire human genome, is important for development and prescription of safer and more effective individually tailored drugs and will aid in understanding how genetics influence drug response. In schizophrenia, pharmacogenetic studies have shown the role of genetic variants of the cytochrome P450 enzymes such as CYP2D6, CYP2C19, and CYP2A1 in the metabolism of antipsychotic drugs. At the level of drug targets, variants of the dopamine $D_2$, $D_3$ and $D_4$, and 5-$HT_{2A}$ and 5-$HT_{2C}$ receptors have been examined. The pharmacogenetic studies in schizophrenia presently shows controversial findings which may be related to the multiple involvement of genes with relatively small effects and to the lack of standardized phenotypes. For further development in the pharmacogenomics of schizophrenia, there would be required the extensive outcome measures and definitions, and the powerful new tools of genomics, proteomics and so on.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.215-218
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• 1998

The $5-HT_{2A}$ receptor is of great interest for research into schizophrenia and psychopharmacology in light of the observation that schizophrenic patients has 5-HT cortical-subcortical imbalance and atypical antipsychotic clozpine has $5-HT_{2A}$ antagonists properties. An significant association between schizophrenia and the T102C polymorphism of the gene for $5-HT_{2A}$receptor has been reported. In this study, we investigated an association between schizophrenia and the T102C polymorphism of the gene for $5-HT_{2A}$ receptor in Korean schizophrenic patients. The subjects consisted of 139 schizophrenic patients and 88 normal controls. Genomic DNA was amplified by PCR and digested with MsPI. The uncutt product identified allele 1(nucleotide sequence TCT) ; digested products of 216bp and 156bp identified allele 2(nucleotide sequence TCC). The allele frequencies and the genotypic distribution of $5-HT_{2A}$ receptor gene were not significantly different between schizophrenic patients and normal controls. Since allele frequencies of the T102C polymorphism may differ between individuals of different ethnic backgrounds, it needs to be conducted in an advanced research.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.239-244
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• 2011

Objectives Schizophrenic patients have been shown to be impaired in both emotional self-awareness and recognition of others' facial emotions. Alexithymia refers to the deficits in emotional self-awareness. The relationship between alexithymia and recognition of others' facial emotions needs to be explored to better understand the characteristics of emotional deficits in schizophrenic patients. Methods Thirty control subjects and 31 schizophrenic patients completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20-Korean version (TAS-20K) and facial emotion recognition task. The stimuli in facial emotion recognition task consist of 6 emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and neutral). Recognition accuracy was calculated within each emotion category. Correlations between TAS-20K and recognition accuracy were analyzed. Results The schizophrenic patients showed higher TAS-20K scores and lower recognition accuracy compared with the control subjects. The schizophrenic patients did not demonstrate any significant correlations between TAS-20K and recognition accuracy, unlike the control subjects. Conclusions The data suggest that, although schizophrenia may impair both emotional self-awareness and recognition of others' facial emotions, the degrees of deficit can be different between emotional self-awareness and recognition of others' facial emotions. This indicates that the emotional deficits in schizophrenia may assume more complex features.

• 정신신체의학
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.73-81
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• 1997

Objects: This study aimed to evaluate the role of somatic delusion on the pain perception in patients with schizophrenia. It was hypothesized that pressure pain thresholds would be rather higher in schizophrenic patients who had somatic delusion than patients with other delusion. Methods The subjects were consisted of 3 groups, 23 men with schizophrenia who had somatic delusion, 25 men with schizophrenia who had other delusion, and 22 normal healthy controls. By using Algometer, pressure pain thresholds were examined to subjects on three non-tender sites with 6 weeks interval. The severity of delusion was evaluated in both patient groups. Statistically, Chi-square test, One-way ANOVA, Multivariate ANOVA, and Scheffe's test were used. Results : 1) There was significant difference between somatic and other delusion groups and normal control group at initial stage. 6 weeks later even when severity of delusion was thought to be ameliorated, this finding were sustained. 2) The severity of the components of delusion, conviction and preoccupation, were significantly decreased in both somatic delusion group and other delusion group according to the time interval. The decrements of the severity of delusion seems to be related with changes in pressure pain thresholds in both patient groups. Conclusions : We re-confirmed that both schizophrenic patient groups showed higher pressure pain thresholds compared to normal healthy control. However we failed to find the role of somatic delusion on pain perception in schizophrenia. Delusion, including somatic delusion, as a whole, seems to affect the increased level of pressure pain threshold due to attention deficit and decreased motivation in patients with schizophrenia.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.76-111
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to develop the Korean version of the Social Functioning Scale (KSFS) in the patients with schizophrenia. Methods : KSFS was administered to 90 schizophrenic patients and 80 their parents and 90 normal controls for examining the reliability and validity. Results : Data analysis showed statistically significant reliabilities and validities of KSFS. The test-retest reliability, rater vs. self-report reliability, and internal consistency for total scores of KSFS were 0.93, 0.44 and 0.94 respectively. Evidence for discriminant validity of KSFS comes from the results that the mean scores of schizophrenic patients were significantly higher than those of normal controls. Construct validity was assessed by calculating the 7 inter-areas correlations of the KSFS, and all areas were statistically significant. Significant correlations between the total scores of KSFS and those of SOFAS lend support for the concurrent validity of this instrument. Factor analyses were performed and two factors were extracted accounting for 63.7% of the variance. Sensitivity was assessed indirectly via the distribution and range of scores on the SFS. The normal control group showed a distribution around a higher mean with a moderate positive skew. Conclusion : KSFS was found to be a valid, reliable, and sensitive instrument which can be used to evaluate the degree of social functioning in the patients with schizophrenia.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.86-93
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• 2010

Objectives : The aim of this research is to determine the effects of depression and anxiety symptoms of schizophrenic psychopathology on the HPA axis. Methods : Twenty patients with schizophrenia were included and divided into the medication non-exposed group(n = 10) and the medication exposed group(n = 10). Evaluated scales were the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms(SANS), Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms(SAPS), Hamilton Depression Inventory(HAM-D) and Hamilton Anxiety Inventory (HAM-A), and then the combined Dexamethasone/Corticotropin Releasing Hormone(DEX/CRH) test was conducted to determine the basal level, the peak level and the area under the curve(AUC) of cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone(ACTH). Results : When the correlations between each psychopathology and cortisol level or ACTH AUC value were analyzed, HAM-D showed a negative correlation, whereas HAM-A showed a positive correlation. Also, the non-depression group(HAM-D ${\leq}$ 18) showed higher cortisol and ACTH concentrations than the depression group(HAM-D > 18), and the anxiety group(HAM-A ${\geq}$ 14) showed significantly higher concentrations than the non-anxiety group(HAM-D < 14)(p < 0.05). Also, as for the comparison between the medication non-exposed group and the medication exposed group, the non-exposed group showed significantly higher cortisol and ACTH concentration than exposed group(p < 0.05). Conclusion : This study suggest that anxiety symptoms rather than depression symptoms are related to the increased activity of the HPA axis of schizophrenics.