• 생물정신의학
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.5-14
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• 2011

Neuroimaging in psychiatry encompasses the powerful tools available for the in vivo study of brain structure and function. MRI including the volumetry, voxel-base morphometry(VBM) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are useful for assessing brain structure, whereas function MRI, positron emission tomography(PET) and magnetoencephalography(MEG) are well established for probing brain function. These tools are well tolerated by the vast majority of psychiatric patients because they provide a powerful but noninvasive means to directly evaluate the brain. Although neuroimaging technology is currently used only to rule in or rule out general medical conditions as opposed to diagnosing primary mental disorders, it may be used to confirm or make psychiatric diagnoses in the future. In addition, neuroimaging may be valuable for predicting the natural course of psychiatric illness as well as treatment response.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.93-98
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• 2014

Objectives Circadian rhythms have been known to have associations with psychiatric disorders and personality traits. The present study investigated the relationships between circadian typology and temperaments/characters in a non-clinical Korean population. Methods Two hundred six healthy Korean college students (male 109, female 97) participated in this study. The subjects completed the Composite Scale of Morningness for circadian typology and 140-item Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised-Short version (TCI-RS). Results Multivariate analyses of covariance showed a significant association between chronotypes and temperamental dimensions of the TCI-RS. Morning types were significantly associated with lower harm avoidance and higher persistence and self-directedness dimensions, compared to evening types and intermediate types. No interaction effects between sex and chronotypes were shown for temperamental dimensions. Conclusions The present findings suggest that high persistence and self-directedness characters are related to morning types and high harm avoidance temperament is more related to evening types.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.87-92
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• 2014

Objectives Risk taking has been implicated in the development of various psychiatric disorders. Previous studies have indicated that risk taking behavior is associated with high levels of impulsiveness. Risk taking entail uncertain situation that outcome probability is unknown. This study tested impulsivity, intolerance of uncertainty and risk taking behavior. Methods A total of 73 participants completed a test battery comprised of the UPPS-P scale as a psychometric measurement of five dimensions of impulsivity, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, and Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) as a behavioral measure of risk taking. The Pearson correlation analysis was used. Results The sensation seeking factor was positively correlated with BART measure (r = 0.27, p = 0.02). Specifically, the relationship between sensation seeking and BART was significant in females. Conclusions Among the five factors of UPPS-P, only the sensation seeking factor predicts risk taking propensity.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.217-224
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• 2011

Subsyndromal bipolar symptoms are common during maintenance treatment and appear to be associated with relapse into an episode of the same polarity. This implies subsyndromal symptoms are an important problem in recurrent bipolar disorder and require more additive and infallible therapeutic intervention. Undetected, untreated subsyndromal states lead patients to have poor prognosis and quality of life. The combination of a long undetected illness and significant psychosocial impairment renders early identification and intervention vital for the treatment of bipolar disorders. Methods for early identification includes finding prodromes, using screening tools such as the HCL-32 (Hypomania Checklist-32) and the BSDS (bipolar spectrum diagnostic scale). Various augmentation treatment methods would be needed to reduce subsyndromal symptoms, especially, psychosocial treatment has the potential to help patients address the multiple psychosocial problems associated with this chronic illness. To overcome difficulties of diagnosing subsyndromal disorder and to treat it appropriately, a staging system was suggested by some researchers. It assumes that earlier stages have better prognosis and require simpler therapeutic regimens. Staging may assist in treatment planning and prognosis of bipolar disorder, and emphasize the importance of early intervention. Further research is required in this exciting and novel area.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.129-135
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• 2013

Aggression can be defined as 'behavior intended to harm another' which can be seen both from humans and animals. However, trying to understand aggression in a simplistic view may make it difficult to develop an integrated approach. So, we tried to explain aggression in a multidisciplinary approach, affected by various factors such as neuroanatomical structures, neurotransmitter, genes, and sex hormone. Parallel with animal models, human aggression can be understood with two phenomena, offensive aggression and defensive aggression. Neurobiological model of aggression give a chance to explain aggression with an imbalance between prefrontal regulatory influences and hyper-reactivity of the subcortical areas involved in affective evaluation, finally in an aspect of brain organization. Serotonin and GABA usually inhibit aggression and norepinephrine while glutamate and dopamine precipitate aggressive behavior. As there is no one gene which has been identified as a cause of aggression, functions between gene to gene interaction and gene to environment interaction are being magnified. Contributions of sex hormone to aggression, especially molecular biologic interaction of testosterone and regulation of estrogen receptor have been emphasized during the research on aggression. This multidisciplinary approach on aggression with types, neurochemical bases, and animal models can bring integrated interpretation on aggression.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.9-14
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• 2022

Objectives Sleep is fundamental to maintaining homeostatic control and has behavioral and psychological effects on humans. To better understand the function and pathophysiology of sleep, specific gene expressions in reference to sleep deprivation have been studied. In this study, we investigated the gene expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells after sleep deprivation to better understand the functional consequence of sleep. Methods In eight healthy men, 24 h sleep deprivation was induced. Blood was sampled at 14:00, before and after sleep deprivation. mRNA was isolated and analyzed via microarrays. cDNAs before and after sleep deprivation were coupled to Cy3 or Cy5, respectively, and normalized cDNAs were selected with a ratio greater than two as a significant gene. Results are expressed as mean. Results Among 41174 transcripts, 38852 genes were selected as reliable, and only a small minority (< 1%) of the genes were up-or down-regulated. Total six and eleven genes were selected as significant upregulated and downregulated genes, respectively. Protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type O was most upregulated (6.9-fold), and low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5-like protein showed the most substantial inhibition (0.06-fold). Conclusions This study showed significant associations between sleep deprivation and the immune system. Acute sleep deprivation affects pathways in proinflammatory cytokines as well as metabolic pathways of glutamate and purine, neurotransmitters related to sleep and wake cycle.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.179-187
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• 1997

The clinical efficacy of serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as clomipramine in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder(OCD) has fueled interest in the neurobiological basis of this illness. OCD is responsive exclucively to potent serotonin reuptake inhibitors clomipramine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, sertraline, and paroxetine and this point forms the important evidence supporting a cental role for serotonin in the pathogenesis of the disorder. Other serotonergic medications such as lithium, buspirone, trazodone, or fenfluramine may be useful as adjuvant treatments in treatmentrefractory OCD and adjuvant antipsychotics are useful in tic disorders, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders. This paper reviews results of treatment studies, investigations of biological markers, and neuroendocrine challenges and implications for the role of serotonin in pathophysiology and treatment of OCD.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.17-33
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• 1998

Advances in molecular biology contribute to the understanding genetic mechanism of psychiatric disorders. They have renewed hope for the discovery of disease relevant gene. However, the results somewhat confused. And we will wait for a long time for the application of gene therapy in schizophreniar. Fortunately we could classified the schizophrenia with genotypes of dopamine and serotonin receptors. It is expected that this genetic classification could provide key strategy for the therapeutic application in biological treatment for schizophrenia. The purpose of this article is to call attention of the institute participants to linkage, association, mRNA expression, genotypic classification and to the need for more systemic research. The author summarized the modified methods which were done in his laboratory in appendix.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.79-94
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• 2002

Polarisation of biological and psychosocial aspects of psychiatry is nowadays main stream. Current knowledges of the interaction between biology and psychology make it possible to consider a truly integrative approach of the two aspects. Research findings suggest that the neuronal plasticity is the key mechanism to answer how the mental function work to an environmental stimuli and how the psychotherapeutic approach work on the brain. Advances in neuroscience research have led to a more sophisticated understanding of how psychotherapy may affect brain function. Even though there have been a tremendous efforts to find out the neurobiological mechanism of mental function, the answer is at best premature. In this article, research findings about of neuronal plasticity, implicit memory, animal studies which were associated with psychotherapy and psychological aspects were reviewed.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.186-196
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• 2003

Objects:The authors devebped a behavioral modification program for oveweight outpatients with schi-zophrenia and bipolar disorder will had teen treated with atypical antipsychotics, and evaluated the applicability of this program to outpatients Methods:Two men and nine women who had been treated with atypical antipsychotics and will had gained at least 5 percent of their pre-treatment body weight for 10 weeks, attended a behavioral modification program. The patients' weight, body mass index and the diet-activity scale were assessed and were compared with those of a matched comparison group will dd not attend the behavioral modification program Results:The body weight of patients who attended the behavioral modification program reduced with statistical significance, The treatment group showed significant improvement in diet-related items but not in activity-related items of the diet-activity scale Conclusions:This study suggested the applicability of a eehavioral mcdification program on weight reduction to overweight patients taking atypical antipsychotics for the frrst time in Korea Additional large scale studies are needed to validate the effectiveness of this program.