• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.51-55
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• 2018

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a functional contextual intervention approach based on the behavioral theory on human language, which views human suffering as originating in psychological inflexibility fostered by cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance. Thus, the goal of ACT is to enhance psychological flexibility using six core processes including acceptance, cognitive defusion, self-as-context, contact with present moment, values clarification, and committed action. Recent clinical trials have suggested the efficacy for ACT in the treatment of various mental illness and psychological distress. The aim of this review is to offer more knowledge and better understanding of ACT by presenting its underlying principle and an overview of the research field.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.157-168
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• 2020

The number of disasters caused by natural or human-made events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, typhoons, industrial disasters, and the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has increased and the damage caused by such disasters is increasing every year. Disasters can cause physical destruction and also have unexpected psychological impacts, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Ear acupuncture is a treatment modality that can be helpful for both physical and mental health problems. Since ear acupuncture is a cost-effective, flexible, and safe treatment tool, it has the potential to provide medical assistance in disasters. The National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) auricular acupuncture protocol, originally developed for addiction treatment, has been used for mental illness and behavioral symptoms in both community health settings and in a variety of disaster, terror, and refugee settings. In this review, we introduced the NADA protocol, including its history, features, training, clinical evidence, and cases in disaster settings, suggesting that the NADA protocol could be utilized as a disaster medical support model in Korean medicine.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.489-499
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• 2016

This study examined the effects of a forest environment on internet addition and the self-esteem of internet-addicted adolescents. For comparison, the same group counseling programs were conducted in a classroom not in the forest. Twenty-four second grade students from a Middle School in S-city were grouped with 8 members in each group. Each group joined this program 6 times. The group results were then compared over a follow-up period. The dependent variables were the internet addiction scores and self-esteem scores. In the research results, the experimental group that undertook this program in the forest environment showed significantly different internet addiction scores compared to the control group immediately after the program and during the follow-up period. According to the period, the experimental group showed a significant difference in the internet addiction scores compared to the previous scores, immediately after the program and during the follow-up period. The comparison group showed no significant difference compared to the control group immediately after the program and during the follow-up period. The program in the forest environment showed a significant difference in the self-esteem scores compared to the comparison group and the control group immediately after the program and during the follow-up period. The self-esteem scores of the experimental group increased significantly compared to the comparison group and control group. In addition, the self-esteem scores of the comparison group also increased significantly, compared to the control group. The self-esteem scores of the experimental group also increased significantly, compared to the previous scores, immediately after the program and during the follow-up period. These results suggest that a natural environment, such as a forest, has therapeutic effects on decreasing the addiction symptoms' of internet addiction adolescents and also helps raise their self-esteem. Nevertheless, more study will be needed to verify what effects the forest environment have on the therapeutic mechanism on various addicts. Lastly, the constraints and implications of this research are described.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.5-16
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• 2008

Several treatment programs putting mindfulness to practical use are being utilized in the various clinical settings as well as educational fields since 1980's. In this article, I studied several books and journals related with mindfulness and tried to show that mindfulness may have its neural circuits in the brain and can be utilized in the form of MBSR, MBCT, ACT, DBT not only to reduce stress and the symptoms of various psychosomatic conditions but to be applied to psychiatric illness such as, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and eating disorders, predicting its usefulness as a new psycho-social treatment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.409-422
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• 2021

The growing use of prescription analgesic opioids has rapidly escalated the treatment of chronic pain since the 1990s; however, it is also highly needed to control opioid-related issues, including opioids misuse, abuse, and addiction. In 2018, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) secretariat administered the survey on opioids use and policies to OECD countries and presented it at the Health Committee meeting of December 2018. This study aimed to review the opioids use in OECD countries and their policies to prevent and reduce associated harms, also seek the available policy lessons from OECD countries. More recently, opioids prescribing rate have been increased 14.7% between 2011-2013 and 2014-2016 and steadily focused on the main substance misused and abused in Korea. In addition, policy efforts have contributed to developing a guideline for prescribing opioids to steer the appropriate use of prescription analgesic opioids since 2000 in Korea, so it is not enough to control opioids compared with other OECD countries. Therefore, taking a people-centered and public health perspective, it will consider the health system policies and interventions at a national level to improve their preparation and approach to control opioid-related issues.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.165-191
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to identify the major predictive factors of intention of drug users to use treatment services. The theoretical framework was used extended Behavioral Model of Health Services Use which integrates the Andersen model and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Thus, this study examined the effects of individual characteristics(predisposing, enabling, need factor) and attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control on drug users' intention to use treatment services. Factors with a statistically significant effect were as follows: from the individual characteristics - gender and past treatment experiences of the predisposing factors along with psychiatric diagnosis, anxiety and depression, and severity of drug abuse of need factors. From the Theory of Planned Behavior - subjective norm and perceived behavior control turned out to have impacts on their intention to use treatment services. The study emphasizes that a concern of women, increasing positive experiences of treatment, efforts to change the subjective norms and perceived behavior control of drug users to promote their determination to get treatment.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2007

Recently, the lifetime prevalence rate of alcoholism in Korea shows to be quite higher than that in American, European and Asian countries indicating approximately 11 %. Also prevalence rate of male adult alcoholism in total inpatient of a polyclinic hospital shows to be very high indicating 16.5 % to 38.2 %, and from this result it is could be supposed that considerable physical diseases are related with alcoholic problem. According to the disorder related with alcohol is one of the most important hygienic problems in our society. In spite of the development of medicine, there is no certain medication or method in the field of the adult diseases or cancers under the actual circumstances that foods and drugs have been taking approximately for the purpose of prevention; and from this viewpoint, functional foods proved to be physically effective compared to general foods have been developing and the natural substances that could increase the effectiveness of general food have been produced. Alcohol addiction has been inducing several social problems and according to the increasing trend following the development of society it is strongly required to develop the medication. Therefore the research regarding to the treatment for the alcohol addiction has been performed widely, and especially the attempt to developof new medication using herbal medicine has been performing as in the development of the medication for other diseases. This study was designed to investigate the effect of Glycyrrhizae Radix which is the representative herbal medicine and has been used widely in the preparation of herbal medicine on alcohol intake and alcohol withdrawal syndrome.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.756-763
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• 2002

We have previously demonstrated that repeated injections of nicotine produced an increase in locomotor activity, dopamine(DA), release and c-Fos expression in the nucleus accumbens, one of the major projection areas of the central DA system. Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely used for the treatment of many functional disorders such as substance abuse and mental dysfunction. And many studies have shown that Coptidis Rhizoma has a suppressive effect on the central nervous system (CNS) and can affect the neurotransmitter systems in the CNS. In order to investigate whether acupuncture and Coptidis Rhizoma have an influence on nicotine-induced reinforcing and behavioral effects, we examined the effect of zusanli(ST36) and Coptidis Rhizoma on repeated nicotine-induced locomotor activity, and zusanli(ST36) on c-Fos expression as an important maker of postsynaptic neuronal activity in nucleus accumbens. Male SD rats received Coptidis Rhizoma (100mg/kg, p.o.) 30 min before injections of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg, s.c.) for 7 days. Rats were followed withdrawal for 3 days and one challenge for 1 day. Systemic challenge with nicotine produced a much larger increase in locomotor activity. Pretreatment with acupuncture at zusanli(ST36, 100Hz) and Coptidis Rhizoma decreased in nicotine-induced locomotor activity. These results demonstrated that reduction in locomotor activity by acupuncture at zusanli(ST36, 100Hz) and Coptidis Rhizoma may be mediated by reduction of dopamine release. Our results suggest that acupuncture at zusanli(ST36, 100Hz) and Coptidis Rhizoma may have therapeutic effect on nicotine addiction.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.327-332
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• 2011

It has been shown that some opium derivatives promote cell death via apoptosis. This study was designed to examine the influence of opium addiction on brain and liver cells apoptosis in male and female diabetic and non-diabetic Wistar rats. This experimental study was performed on normal, opium-addicted, diabetic and diabetic opium-addicted male and female rats. Apoptosis was evaluated by TUNEL and DNA fragmentation assays. Results of this study showed that apoptosis in opium-addicted and diabetic opium-addicted brain and liver cells were significantly higher than the both normal and diabetic rats. In addition, we found that apoptosis in brain cells of opium-addicted and diabetic opium-addicted male rats were significantly higher than opium-addicted and diabetic opium-addicted female, whereas apoptosis in liver cells of opium-addicted and diabetic opium-addicted female rats were significantly higher than opium-addicted and diabetic opium-addicted male. Overall, these results indicate that opium probably plays an important role in brain and liver cells apoptosis, therefore, leading neurotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. These findings also in away possibly means that male brain cells are more susceptible than female and interestingly liver of females are more sensitive than males in induction of apoptosis by opium.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

The caffeine intake cause a local or wide ranges of convulsion and it is associated with release of dopamine (DA) receptors into the brain striatum. However, the effect of caffeine addiction on expression of DA receptors gene in the rat caudate-putamen (CPu), nucleus accumbens (NAc), and olfactory tubercle (OTu) has not been elucidated. In this study, we examined the influence of caffeine addiction on DA D $_1$and D$_2$receptor mRNAs after the treatment of caffeine for four weeks. Using the specific antisense ribo-probes for DA D$_1$and D$_2$receptor cDNAs, in situ hybridization was performed on the CPu, NAc, and OTu of the adult male Sprague Dawely rats. In caffeine-treated group, DA D$_1$and D$_2$receptor mRNAs were highly increased in CPu, NAc, and OTu. The expression density of DA D$_1$receptor mRNAs were 2.52${\pm}$1.40 (CPu), 2.78${\pm}$1.69 (NAc), and 3.91${\pm}$1.28 (OTu) in control group and 7.76${\pm}$2.09 (CPu), 4.2 ${\pm}$1.85 (NAc), and 8.21${\pm}$1.72 (OTu) in caffeine-treated group. The expression density of DA D$_2$receptor mRNA was 2.32${\pm}$1.52 (CPu), 2.63${\pm}$2.11 (NAc), and 3.61${\pm}$1.43 (OTu) in control group, and 6.41${\pm}$1.82 (CPu), 6.89${\pm}$1.32 (NAc), and 6.82${\pm}$1.18 (OTu) in caffeine-treated group. DA D$_1$receptor mRNA was higher expressed than DA D$_2$ receptor mRNA in CPu and NAc. These results suggest that caffeine reacts as a upregulator of the expression of DA D$_1$and D$_2$receptor mRNA among the neurotransmitters.