• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.481-490
• /
• 2014

This study aims to identify depressive symptoms status and factors to affect depressive symptoms in the elderly. The research selected 1,429 adults aged over 65, who appeared with depressive symptoms, from the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2012. We analyzed states of depressive symptoms using descriptive statistics. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the main factors associated with depressive symptoms in the elderly. The result shows that depressive symptoms in the elderly is significantly associated with gender, age, income level, subjective health status, smoking and the number of chronic diseases. Females, higher age, lower income, lower subjective health status, smoking and the higher the number of chronic diseases were the significant factors of higher depressive symptoms. Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective social programs and individualized approach to improve the quality of life in the elderly. In the future, these findings can be used as important data for health care policy and assessment.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.92-100
• /
• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate 1) the neuropsychological deficits with major depressive disorder(MDD) in depressed state and 2) the changes of neuropsychological dysfunctions during depressed episodes and remitted periods in the MDD group. Methods : 12 patients with MDD and 70 normal controls who were diagnosed and classified by DSM-IV and SCID-IV interview participated in this study. The psychopathology was measured using the Hamilton rating scale for depression(HAM-D) and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS). The memory function, executive function, and sustained attention were measured by a trained psychologist using the Korean version of Memory Assessment Scale(K-MAS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST), and Vigilance(VIG) and Cognitrone (COG) in Vienna Test System. After 6 weeks of treatment, we retested the cognitive tests in order to measure the cognitive functions in remitted states. Results : Patients with MDD achieved significantly lower score in sentence immediately recall, verbal memory score and total memory score of the K-MAS, total errors of the WCST, response time of Vigilance and response time at "Yes" response of Cognitrone than normal controls at baseline. After 6 weeks of medication, the psychiatric symptoms in the patient group were attenuated, and most of the neuropsychological functions including attention, memory, and frontal/executive function were improved except for response time of Cognitrone. Conclusions : This study provides evidence for distinct neuropsychological deficits in patients with MDD on their depressed states and remitted periods. The impairment on response time remains after remission, and this would be a trait marker of major depressive disorder.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.25 no.9
• /
• pp.1213-1222
• /
• 2016

Given the growing attention to nature and health in modern society, this study considered the role of a waterscape facility as a key element in a landscape's influence on users' physiological and psychological responses. The subjects were 28 university students, and the collected data included systolic and diastolic blood pressure, salivary amylase concentration, semantic differential (SD) scales, and profile of mood states (POMS). As compared to a space without any waterscape element (Type G), relaxation in a space with a waterscape element (Type W) was found to significantly reduce of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and salivary amylase concentration. The SD scale and POMS findings showed that Type W evoked active, bright, dynamic, free, vital, interesting, and cheerful images and improved mood states by enhancing vigor while inhibiting depressive feelings. These findings indicate waterscape facilities can improves users' mood states and may enhance their health.

• Journal of Korean Medical Ki-Gong Academy
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.19-35
• /
• 2013

Objective : The purpose of this case is to report the improvement of a patient with acute paralytic ileus with past history of mild depressive episode after acupuncture therapy and herbal medicine. Methods : We treated the patient, who had acute abdominal pain and were diagnosed as paralytic ileus, with acupuncture, herbal medicine and manipulation therapy. We observed changes of chief symptoms and abdominal states. Results : We treated the patient who had severe abdominal pain, constipation and anorexia caused by acute paralytic ileus. For about one month of the treatment, we had the improvement of the symptoms. Conclusions : This study suggests that Conservative korean medical treatment might be useful for abdominal pain caused by acute paralytic ileus, and make a patient feel psychological stability.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.207-226
• /
• 2019

Depression is a serious psychological disease that is expected to afflict an increasing number of people. And studies on depression have been conducted in the context of social media because social media is a platform through which users often frankly express their emotions and often reveal their mental states. In this study, large amounts of Korean text were collected and analyzed to determine whether such data could be used to detect depression in users. This study analyzed data collected from Twitter users who had and did not have depressive tendencies between January 2016 and February 2019. The data for each user was separately analyzed before and after the appearance of depressive tendencies to see how their expression changed. In this study the data were analyzed through co-occurrence word analysis, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis. This study's automated data collection method enabled analyses of data collected over a relatively long period of time. Also it compared the textual characteristics of users with depressive tendencies to those without depressive tendencies.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.71-85
• /
• 2003

Objectives: The present study was directed at revealing the influence of various life styles on the subjective well-being and depressive states, and their related factors among the elderly. Methods: The interviews were given to 454 elderly people aged over 65 (197 male and 257 female) in rural areas of Chungnam Province during the 3-month period from July 1st to Sep. 30th, 2002. The interview contents for the elderly included social demographic characteristics, activities of daily living(ADL) whether independent of others or not, subjective well-being, Zung's self-rating depression scale(SDS), etc. Results: The male elderly showed significantly higher scores in subjective well-being than the female, and with regard to Zung's depression scores, they were significantly higher in the female than the male elderly. Based on the correlation between scores of subjective well-being and its related factors, there was a significant, positive correlation in both sexes with whether or not participation in the social gatherings and the degree of satisfaction with subjective health status. The factors shown to be negatively correlated with depression scores in both sexes were whether or not participation in the social gatherings, the degree of satisfaction with the subjective health status, economic conditions, and ADL scores. The factors influencing on the subjective well-being included depressive states, eating habits, dwelling states, ADL scores, and physical activity. Those influencing on the depressive states were the degree of satisfaction with the subjective health status, physical activity, sexes, smoking, ADL scores, economic conditions, eating habits and whether or not participation in the social gatherings. Conclusions: Consequently, the subjective well-being as well as physical activity and economic conditions were shown to be the important factors for the healthy elderly life.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.237-245
• /
• 1997

The study was designed to evaluate the significant roles of SSRI in rat of depression model. Chronic exposure to mild unpredictable stress has been found to depress the consumption of sweet 1% sucrose solutions in the Sprague-Dawley rats. We applied the variety of 11 types of stress regimens and identified depressive behaviours(developed by Willner) in 70 Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats in experiments were stratified into 6 groups, ie ; 3 kinds of SSRI(paroxetine, fluoxetine, sertraline), clomipramine, choline and saline control. Memory function was evaluated by passive avoidance learning and retention test. The authors determined how long memory retention would remain improved with 24 hour, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 4 weeks at training-testing interval in depressive states of the Sprague-Dawley rats. The results were as follows ; 1) There were no significant differences between the 6 groups at the 24 hour training-testing interval. 2) The paroxetine treated group showed significant differences from the control group at the 1 week and 2 weeks training-testing interval. 3) The paroxetine and the fluoxetine treated groups showed singificant differences from the control group at 3 week training-testing interval. 4) The paroxetine and the choline treated groups showed significant differences from the control group at 4 week training-testing interval. In summary, paroxetine had an effect on long term memory processing from 1st week to 4th week. Also, fluoxetine(at 3rd week) and choline(at 4th week) had effect on long term memory processing. Sertraline, clomipramine were ineffective on memory processing during 4 weeks observation. Possible explanations why paroxetine had early effect on memory processing than the other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are rapid bioavailability, which is the characteristics of pharmacokinetics of paroxetine. In clinical situation, author carefully suggest that SSRI would be beneficial to improve the memory function caused by depressive neurochemical changes.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.63-74
• /
• 2013

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of 3 day Forests healing programs for cognitive improvement, which consists of helpful contents of Korean medicine. Methods : This study examined the effects of forests healing for mild cognitive impairment patients, who visited a Korean medicine hospital neuropsychiatry clinic for outpatients. The Forests healing programs for cognitive improvement was run with 24 participants, in which 9 of them quit in the middle of the program, so excluded in data analysis. The Forests healing programs for cognitive improvement was consisted of 3 day helpful Korean medicine contents. The primary outcome measurement was a Computerized Neurocognitive Test (CNT), which measured the cognitive functions with computer programs. Results : The results of this study showed that CNT scores were not significantly changed after 3 day forests healing. General psychological states, including depression, anxiety, and anger, were also checked. Among them, depressive mood significantly improved. Quality of life (QOL) was also enhanced after 3 day program. These results indicate that the 3 day Forests healing programs for cognitive improvement was effective for depressive mood and QOL of mild cognitive impairment patients, but not enough for cognitive functions directly. Conclusions : The 3 day Forests healing programs for cognitive improvement were shown to be an effective intervention in improving some aspects of mild cognitive impairment patients, including depressive mood, and QOL. We suggest that repeated participation of this program can enhance cognitive function of mild cognitive impairment patients.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.15-20
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This study was designed to assess the change of heart rate variability (HRV) at resting, upright, and psychological stress states in depressive disorder patients. Methods: HRV was measured at resting, upright, and psychological stress states in 62 depressive disorder patients. We used visual analogue scale (VAS) score to assess tension and stress severity. Beck depression inventory (BDI) and state trait anxiety inventories I and II (STAI-I and II) were used to assess depression and anxiety severity, respectively. Differences between HRV indices and VAS score were evaluated using paired t-tests. Gender difference analysis was conducted with ANCOVA. Results: SDNN (standard deviation of normal to normal intervals), LF/HF (low frequency/high frequency), and VLF (very low frequency) were significantly increased, while NN50 and pNN50 were significantly decreased in the upright position compared to resting state. SDNN, RMSSD (root mean square of the differences of successive normal to normal intervals), and VLF were significantly increased, while pNN50 was significantly decreased in the psychological stress state compared to resting state. SDNN, NN50, and pNN50 were significantly lower in an upright position compared to a state of psychological stress, and LF, HF, and LF/HF showed no significant differences Conclusion: The LF/HF ratio was significantly increased after physical stress in depressive disorder. However, the LF/HF ratio was not significantly increased after psychological stress, and the change in LF/HF ratio after physical stress and psychological stress did not significantly differ from each other. Significant increase in SDNN, NN50, and pNN50 in an upright posture compared to psychological stress suggests that depressive patients react more sensitively to physical stress than psychological stress.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.58 no.2
• /
• pp.48-61
• /
• 2008

This study aimed to examine emo fashion, a very recent music-related fashion trend spreading fast amongst youths, and understand emo ideas and methods of expression for a greater understanding of contemporary youth sub-cultures and fashion trends. Documentary research, positive research and in-depth interviews were used throughout the study. 4 Korean emo bands and 4 U.S. emo bands were selected based on music chart rankings, and a total of 37 photographs from the bands' Internet websites were selected, and their clothes shown in the photographs were examined. 5 Korean emo band musicians were subjects of in-depth interviews, and they were asked about their emo culture, music, fashion, ideas and styles, and photographs were taken of the subjects and evaluated, too. Lastly, Korean and U.S. emo kids were studied through photographs, and comparatively analyzed. Both Korean and U.S. emo musicians wore slim silhouettes, skinny jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, black, studded belts and plastic-framed glasses. Korean fashion expressed a less depressive atmosphere with color and other details compared to the United States, and did not prefer dark black eye make-up, which United States emo style appeared to express frequently. Korean musicians' emo fashion was closer to other youth fashions, whereas U.S. emo fashion included more formal styles such as ruffled shirts and pin-striped vests. Korean emo kids wore clothes not much different from most Korean youths, but U.S. emo kids wore a lot of eye make-up and black t-shirts with graphic or skull prints, and had more geometrical hair styles, as if cut at home. The reasons for such differences were found to be a longer emo music and culture history in the United States leading to more elaborate fashion expressions and a difference in the states of mind, such as Korea pursuing to express love, and the United States pursuing loneliness.