• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2012

Objectives : We investigated the prevalence and composite score of the neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with mild cognitive impairment(MCI), and dementia of Alzheimer's type(AD). The aim of this study is to analyze the correlation between the result of Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory(K-NPI) and cognitive function. Methods : A total of 163 patients diagnosed with MCI or AD was divided into three groups(55 MCI patients, 56 dementia patients with mild stage, and 52 dementia patients with moderate, severe stage). We examined neuro-psychiatric symptoms by K-NPI and compared the prevalence and composite score of each subdomain in K-NPI among three groups. Results : The most common symptoms in the MCI group were depression/dysphoria, sleep/night-time behavior, anxiety, and irritability/lability. In mild AD group, the most frequent disturbance was agitation/aggression, depression/dysphoria, anxiety, apathy/indifference, and sleep/night-time behavior. In moderate to severe AD group, the most frequent disturbance was apathy/indifference, depression/dysphoria, agitation/aggression, and delusion. The frequencies of delusion, hallucination, agitation/aggression, apathy/indifference, aberrant motor behavior, appetite/eating change were statistically significant. The total NPI score showed a negative correlation with MMSE-KC and a positive correlation with GDS. Conclusions : Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common features of MCI and AD. These symptoms observed in MCI are similar to those of mild AD. Psychosis is most common in moderate to severe AD, leading to a faster rate of cognitive decline. Therefore, proper management according to the neuropsychiatric symptoms of MCI and three stages of dementia is needed.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.79-107
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• 2009

Episodic memory, i.e. memorization of information within a spatiotemporal environment, is affected Alzheimer's disease(AD), but its impairment may also be occurred in the normal aging process. The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate memory in with Dementia of Alzheimer Type by examining their cognitive skills in episodic memory using the technique. This new method involves assessing the mental images the subject's own past in the mind like projected and movies. Three patients in the early stage of Dementia of Alzheimer Type, one with mild depression, and 2 healthy controls for comparison were asked to retrieve their episodic memory of the previous day, week, month, and a day testing day. The answers were then analyzed with regards to their specific features as emotional state, color, and time order. In the following day, the subjects were tasked to recall again the images they reproduced in the day's test order to observe of memory. Results showed that all 3 patients failed to arrange the retrieved images in time order and their images of the previous day were unclear in color and were stationary like photographs, even when they reproduced the mental images at much quantity as controls. patients could not remember particular events of yesterday, and only recalled the general occurrences of every day life. These results suggest that in the early stage of Dementia of Alzheimer Type, difficulties in the retrieval of recent episodic memory begin to primarily occur, and qualitative impairment happens earlier than quantitative.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2014

Objectives : Homocysteine has been associated with cognitive impairment and various psychiatric symptoms. This study was designed to examine the relationship exists between plasma homocysteine concentration and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia(BPSD). Methods : 41 subjects with dementia of Alzheimer's type were included in this study. We carried out history taking, physical examination, and cognitive assessment for the diagnosis of dementia of Alzheimer's type based on DSM-IV. We scored the Mini Mental State Examination(MMSE), Global Deterioration Scale(GDS), Clinical Dementia Rating(CDR), and the Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory(K-NPI). We also measured levels of homocysteine, folate, and vitamin $B_{12}$ in the plasma. Results : We found statistically significant positive correlations between homocysteine concentration with NPI total score, and with scores of several sub-domains such as delusion, agitation/aggression, depression/dysphoria, and elation/euphoria. No significant correlation existed between homocysteine levels and scores of MMSE, GDS, and CDR. Conclusions : This study shows that plasma homocysteine levels are associated with BPSD. Further research is necessary to identify pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying these relationships.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.213-219
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of error types in naming task for 8 questionable demeatia groups, 9 definite dementia groups, and 10 normal groups. The items of naming error analysis were classified into visual perception errors, semantic association errors, semantic non-correlation errors, phoneme errors, Don't Know, and No Response. For the analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, analysis of variance, and multivariate analysis of variance were conducted using SPSS 21.0. As a result, there was a significant difference in the error rate between groups according to the error type. The errors that showed significant differences between the normal group and the other two groups were visual perception errors and semantic non-related errors. The error of non-response was different from the dementia confirmation group, but there was no significant difference from the dementia suspicion group. These results showed that Alzheimer's patients had a defect in confrontation naming ability. Also, it was found that it is appropriate to provid other clues when the defects caused by the degeneration of a specific step during the information processing process become severe.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.87-99
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• 2023

Background and Purpose: According to the amyloid cascade hypothesis, fibrillary amyloid-beta load in the brain causes Alzheimer's disease (AD) with toxic effects. Recently, perivascular spaces (PVSs), fluid-filled cavities around small penetrating arterioles and venules in the brain, and the glymphatic system relationship with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) and AD has been an important research topic from a physiopathological point of view. There are two types of PVSs that are associated with sporadic atherosclerosis and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between the number and localization of enlarged PVSs in AD. Methods: A total of 254 patients with AD and 125 healthy controls were included in this study All the patients were evaluated with neurological and cognitive examinations and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). PVSs on MRI were graded by recording their number and location. The study was a retrospective study. Results: In our study, the number of white matter convexity-central semiovale localized PVSs was higher in patients than in the control group. In addition, the number of PVSs in this localization score was higher in patients with DM2. Cerebral PVS counts were higher in patients with AD than in the control group. Conclusions: These results suggest the important role of cerebral amyloid angiopathy, one of the vascular risk factors, and the glymphatic system in the pathogenesis of AD. In addition, the results of our study suggest that the evaluation of PVSs levels, especially at the (centrum semiovale), using imaging studies in AD is a potential diagnostic option.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 1998

The changes of electroencephalogram(EEG) in patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type are most commonly studied by analyzing power or magnitude in traditionally defined frequency bands. However because of the absence of an identified metric which quantifies the complex amount of information, there are many limitations in using such a linear method. According to the chaos theory, irregular signals of EEG can be also resulted from low dimensional deterministic chaos. Chaotic nonlinear dynamics in the EEG can be studied by calculating the largest Lyapunov exponent($L_1$). The authors have analyzed EEG epochs from three patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type and three matched control subjects. The largest $L_1$ is calculated from EEG epochs consisting of 16,384 data points per channel in 15 channels. The results showed that patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type had significantly lower $L_1$ than non-demented controls on 8 channels. Topographic analysis showed that the $L_1$ were significantly lower in patients with Alzheimer's disease on all the frontal, temporal, central, and occipital head regions. These results show that brains of patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type have a decreased chaotic quality of electrophysiological behavior. We conclude that the nonlinear analysis such as calculating the $L_1$ can be a promising tool for detecting relative changes in the complexity of brain dynamics.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.141-152
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• 2004

Most elderly victims of senile dementia in Korea are cared for at home. This creates hardship for their families. Recent research suggests that the physical environment can affect the treatment of dementia. In light of these findings, a prudent approach to the design of the housing environment of family with dementia sufferers is advisable. This study aims to determine the design factors that need to be considered for the housing environment of dementia, particularly for those suffering from Alzheimer's or Cerebrovascular dementia. For this study, and in-depth qualitative investigation method was employed. Principal caregivers were interviewed using various investigative tools, including objective measures, structured and non-structured questionnaires. The investigation results suggest that the need for housing environment improvement varies with the severity and type of dementia. The housing needs in this study, is expected to promote a focus on improved design management for the environment and housing of dementia and their families. The results also suggest the establishment of a welfare policy for senile dementia victims and their families.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.40-45
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• 2014

Objectives : Mild cognitive impairment(MCI) and dementia of Alzheimer's type(AD) are characterized by progressive decline of cognitive abilities and a wide range of neuropsychiatric symptoms like depression. Among various diagnostic tools of AD, many studies showed that elevated levels of serum total homocysteine are associated with increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. We investigated whether elevated homocysteine concentrations are associated with depressive symptoms in MCI and AD. Methods : A total of 86 patients diagnosed with MCI or AD participated. Total serum homocysteine levels in fasting blood samples were measured. We examined cognitive symptoms by MMSE-KC, Global Deterioration Scale(GDS), Clinical dementia rating(CDR) and depressive symptoms by Korean version of Geriatric Depression Scale(K-GDS). Results : The total serum homocysteine levels were significantly higher in MCI with depression than in MCI without depression. There was no significant difference in the mean homocysteine levels between AD patients with depression and AD patients without depression. The total homocysteine levels showed a negative correlation with MMSE-KC and a positive correlation with CDR, GDS. Conclusions : These findings suggest that elevated homocysteine level is a risk factor for the decline of cognitive function and depression. We found a significant relationship between elevated serum homocysteine level and depressive symptoms in MCI. But our study had several limitations, thus more research is needed to confirm this finding.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.303-312
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was to develop an aromatherapy hand massage program, and to evaluate the effects of lavender aromatherapy on cognitive function, emotion, and aggressive behavior of elderly with dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Method: The Research design was a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized quasiexperimental study. Lavender aromatherapy was administrated to experimental group I for 2 weeks, jojoba oil massage was administrated to experimental group II for 2 weeks, and no treatment was administrated to the control group for 2 weeks. Data was analyzed using the $x^2-test$, ANOVA, repeated measures of ANCOVA and ANCOVA in the SPSS program package. Result: 1. Experimental group I did not show significant differences in cognitive function in relation to the experimental group II and control group. 2. Experimental group I showed significant differences in emotion and aggressive behavior in relation to the experimental group II and control group. Conclusion: A Lavender aromatherapy hand massage program is effective on emotions and aggressive behavior of elderly with dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.459-469
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine different patterns of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and caregiver burden according to dementia type. Data were collected from June 2014 to December 2014 from five nursing homes. In all, 214 patients [131 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 83 patients with Vascular dementia (VD)] were included in the study. BPSD and caregiver burden data were examined using NPI-NH (Neuropsychiatric Inventory Nursing Home Version). According to the results, both the AD and VD group showed the highest frequency in apathy/indifference and the frequency of anxiety, elation/euphoria, and irritability/lability was significantly higher in the AD group than in the VD group. The difference in total BPSD composite scores between the AD and VD groups was not significant but agitation/aggression was significantly higher in the AD group than in the VD group. The mean score for caregiver burden was significantly higher in the AD group than in the VD group, particularly in agitation/aggression. In conclusion, BPSD differed according to dementia type, and nurses should provide specific interventions to control BPSD; a program to reduce caregiver burden according to dementia type is also needed.