• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2013

Objectives: We compared the characteristics of the pain threshold and pain experience between demented group and non-demented group. Methods: This study was part of Gangwon projects for early detection of dementia in 2010. We recruited 8302 local resident ages over 65 years old. Of theses, 1259 people who scored low MMSE were selected and 365 of them completed CERAD-K(Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease). Finally, 90 in non-demented group and 57 in demented group(mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease) were analyzed. Pain threshold was experimentally measured by pressure algometer and we investigated the pain experience, by Brief pain inventory (BPI), a self-report test. Results: In the demographic characteristics, there are more female, higher ages, lower education in the demented group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the pain threshold. On the BPI results, 'shoulder pain', 'the number of pain' and 'interference of working' were significantly more prevalent in non-demented group. However, there are no significant differences between the groups in the 'pain severity', 'prevalence of pain' and 'pain treatment'. Conclusions: Demented group report less pain experience but, still perceived pain. It support previous studies that patient with dementia have increased pain tolerance but preserved pain threshold. Thus, active pain assessment and treatment for patients with dementia is needed.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.107-115
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of forest healing programs with walking, sightseeing, and forest scent among six healing forest treatments using forest environment on the cognitive function, depression, and quality of life of elderly living alone. The subjects of the study were 17 senior citizens living in Samcheok and complaining of severe depression and forgetfulness. They were divided into two groups, and each group participated in the six sessions of the weekly forest healing program. All of them were surveyed of a Korean version of the MMSE-K, BDI (Beck Depression Inventory Korean Version), and SF-36 (Short Form 36 health survey questionnaire) with the questionnaire designed for the one-group pre-post test to examine changes in cognitive function, depression, and quality of life. The results showed that the mental status, depression level, and quality of life of respondents were significantly higher after healing programs. These results suggest that participation in healing program activities using forest environment can improve cognitive function, relieve depression and improve quality of life for senior citizens living alone. Therefore, inducing older adults who live alone and avoid outside activities to participate in the regular forest healing program will contribute to the prevention of dementia due to age and environment.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2014

Objectives : Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia(BPSD) represent significant clinical problems, resulting in functional decline, caregiver distress, institutionalization and increased mortality. A recent study showed gender differences have important role in the development of BPSD, but relationship between BPSD and gender has never been studied in Korea. This study was designed to examine whether patients with Alzheimer's disease show gender differences in behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia(BPSD). Methods : Ninety-eight subjects with Alzheimer's disease were included in this study. We carried out history taking and cognitive assessment for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on DSM-IV. Cognitive impairment and BPSD were measured using the Mini Mental State Examination(MMSE), Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), Clinical Dementia Rating(CDR) and the Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory(K-NPI). Independent samples t-test was used to examine the differences across gender in BPSD. Correlation analysis between MMSE, CDR, GDS and NPI was performed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results : There were no significant gender differences between the gender in BPSD. We found statistically significant negative correlations between MMSE with NPI total score, and with scores of several sub-domains such as hallucination. Conclusions : This study showed that gender differences in BPSD are not significant. Further research is necessary to identify whether BPSD affect gender differences or individual differences.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.339-349
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• 2013

This study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between the Korean version of Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE-K) and the Korean Computerized Neurobehavioral Test (KCNT) and the usefulness of KCNT for discriminating the patients with suspected dementia from normal persons in patients with a brain injury. The results of each items of KCNT had passed the test for normality. T test for group comparison and bivariate correlation analysis for correlation between two tests were used. There were no significant differences in characteristics of two groups. The differences in results of eight tests of KCNT between two groups were statistically significant (p<.05) and the Pearson correlation coefficients (r) between two tests were statistically significant (p<.05) : simple reaction time (-.580), choice reaction time (-.341), color word vigilance (-.661), digit classification (-.703), 2-digit addition (-.582), 3-digit addition (-.610), symbol digit substitution (-.642), and digit span (.807). These results suggested that simple reaction time and 2-digit addition were useful in discriminating the patients with suspected dementia from normal persons because the Pearson correlation coefficients of the two items of KCNT showed anticlastic association between two groups. And each items of KCNT may use in follow up cognitive function for patients in two groups.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.211-217
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to report the effect of oriental medical treatments with exercise therapy on the frail elderly patient with gait disturbance and cognitive decline. The frail elderly patient with gait disturbance and cognitive decline was treated by oriental medical treatments combined with exercise therapy during 3 months. The improvement of clinical symptom was evaluated by Manual Muscle Test (MMT), Passive Range Of Motion (PROM), Mini Mental State Examination-Korea (MMSE-K). After 3 months, all of both lower extremity Manual Muscle Test (MMT) improved to Grade 4. Both knee extension Passive Range Of Motion (PROM) and Mini Mental State Examination-Korea (MMSE-K) also increased from -30/-30 to 0/-5, from 7 to 25 respectively. It could be suggested that oriental medical treatments with exercise therapy were effective on the frail elderly patient with gait disturbance and cognitive decline. And further research is encouraged to confirm the effectiveness of this treatment with a larger number of patients.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.259-268
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to propose a training method customized to the level of cognitive abilities to increase users' interest and engagement while using cognitive function training contents. The level of cognitive ability of the users was based on the clustering based on the users' information and Mini-Mental Statue Examination-Korea Child test score using the K-means algorithm applied collaborative filtering. The results were applied to the integrated cognitive function training system, and the contents order and difficulty level of the cognitive function training area were recommended to the user's cognitive ability level. Particularly, the contents difficulty control was designed to give a high immersion feeling by applying the 'flow theory' method that users can repeatedly feel tension and comfort. In conclusion, the user-customized cognitive function training method proposed in this paper can be expected to be more effective and rehabilitative results than existing therapists' subjective setting of contents order and difficulty level.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 2005

Objectives: This prospective and open-label study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of quetiapine and haloperidol in patients with delirium. Methods : Fourty patients(19 patients in a quetiapine group : 21 patients in a haloperidol group) with delirium by DSM-IV were treated with flexible doses of open-label qvetiapine and haloperidol. To evaluate the primary efficacy of the medication, scores from the Korean version of Delirium Rating Scale(K-DRS) were assessed every seven days and to evaluate the secondary efficacy and safety, scores from the Clinical Global Impression-Severity, Korean Version of Mini-Mental State Examination, and the Drug-Induced Extrapyramidal Symptoms Scale were assessed at the baseline and the seventh day. Data were gathered from November 2004 to June 2005. Results : K-DRS scores for each group decreased significantly over the study period; however, no significant differences between groups were found. The group-by-time effect was not significant. In addition, there was no significant difference in the frequency of response to drugs between the two groups. No patients reported clinically significant side effects. Conclusion : These data show no significant difference in the efficacy and safety between quetiapine and haloperidol in the treatment of delirium. Since haloperidol has a great possibility of causing a extrapyramidal side effect resulted by previous studies, it is expected that quetiapine, a renowned medication with low side effects, may be a useful alternative agent to haloperidol, the classical antipsy-chotics, in the treatment of delirium.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.105-113
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• 2019

This study examined the effects of geriatric depression and geriatric stress on cognitive impairment. In particular, the dementia groups were divided into Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. A normal group was used as the control group. For each group, the geriatric depression using the geriatric depression scale (GDS) and geriatric stress using the geriatric stress scale (GSS) was compared with the regression and correlation results of cognitive impairment. Statistical tests, such as descriptive statistics, Kruskall-Wallis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis, were performed. For the Alzheimer's group, the GDS and GSS correlated with the cognitive impairment, but only the GDS showed a cause-and-effect relationship with cognitive impairment. In particular, the male group with Alzheimer's disease showed clear confirmation. In addition, geriatric stress was found to be associated with geriatric depression. In conclusion, geriatric depression affects the cognitive impairment directly and geriatric stress affects the cognitive ability indirectly through geriatric depression. In this study, the Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and control groups had a small sample size. Therefore, the external validity in future studies can be increased using a larger sample size for each group.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.294-307
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• 2013

Purpose : To investigate the correlations between Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB) scores and the gray matter volumes (GMV) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively normal (CN) elderly subjects with correcting the genotypes. Materials and Methods: Total 75 subjects were enrolled with 25 subjects for each group. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon genotypes, SNSB scores, and the 3D T1-weighted images were obtained from all subjects. Correlations between SNSB scores and GMV were investigated with the multiple regression method for each subject group using both voxel-based and region-of-interest-based analyses with covariates of age, gender, and the genotype. Results: In the AD group, Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) delayed recall scores were positively correlated with GMV. In the MCI group, Seoul Verbal Learning Test (SVLT) scores were positively correlated with GMV. In the CN group, GMV negatively correlated with Boston Naming Test (K-BNT) scores and Mini-Mental State Examimation (K-MMSE) scores, but positively correlated with RCFT scores. Conclusion: When we used covariates of age, gender, and the genotype, we found statistically significant correlations between some SNSB scores and GMV at some brain regions. It may be necessary to further investigate a longitudinal study to understand the correlation.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2012

Objective : This study was to evaluate the effects of a Neurofeedback(NFB) and Computer Assisted Cognitive Rehabilitation(CACR) training to improve on cognition and affected arm function in stroke subjects. Methods : Participants were randomly allocated to three groups: NFB(n=14), CACR(n=14) and control(n=16). All groups received occupational therapy and physical therapy for 5 session 30 minutes per week during 6 weeks. Also NFB and CACR group practiced additional NeuroComp training and RehaCom training for 30 sessions 30 minutes during 6 weeks. Results were evaluated by cognition, affected arm function. Results : There were significantly increased by CACR training that outcomes of MMSE-K(p<.05). And there weren't significantly difference by NFB and CACR training that outcomes of the affected arm function. And a difference between three groups wasn't found. Conclusion : The NFB and CACR training improves cognitive function. These results suggest that NFB and CACR training is feasible and suitable for individuals with stroke.