• Psychiatry investigation
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• 제15권11호
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• pp.1079-1086
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• 2018

Objective The pathophysiology of social anxiety disorder (SAD) is not yet well understood, but previous research has suggested that oxytocin is associated with social behavior and may play a role in human anxiety states and anxiety-related traits. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between social anxiety symptoms and plasma oxytocin levels. Methods Twenty-three male patients with SAD and 28 healthy male controls participated in this study. All participants were assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify associations between plasma oxytocin levels and SAD. Results In multiple regression models, after controlling for age and years of education, we found that higher oxytocin levels were significantly associated with higher total LSAS scores ($R^2=0.157$, coefficient=0.145, 95% CI=-0.0005-0.291, p=0.051) and fear subscale scores ($R^2=0.134$, coefficient=0.083, 95% CI=0.007-0.159, p=0.034) in the SAD group. Conclusion In this study, increased plasma oxytocin levels were associated with higher social anxiety symptoms among SAD patients, but not among controls. This might be because among SAD patients, higher oxytocin (OT) secretion is an insufficient compensatory attempt to reduce social anxiety symptoms.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.85-92
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• 2015

Background: Many people experience varying levels of discomfort when confronted with the prospect of dental treatment. Dental treatment can be a traumatic experience, especially for children and adolescents with dental anxiety. In this age group, dental fear causes a significant problem in dental management and has been related to severe dental caries and dental pain. The Dental Fear Survey (DFS) is the most widely used measure of dental fear. This study was undertaken to develop the Korean version of the DFS (K-DFS) and test its reliability and validity. Methods: The K-DFS, which uses projective techniques to measure children's and adolescents' dental fear, was developed. The DFS was translated into Korean and participants were selected via convenience sampling. Reliability and validity were tested using data from a sample of 813 middle school students in Gyeonggi Province, selected from the Self questionnaire survey. The K-DFS was administered twice to 102 adolescents aged 12-15 years. Results: The K-DFS had high internal consistency reliability (99.1%) but low test-retest reliability. Conclusions: The results indicate that the Korean versions of the DFS have good internal consistency reliabilities and test-retest validities. However, we need to further examine the test-retest reliability of the K-DFS and replicate the current study in different samples covering various age groups.

• 한국심리학회지:학교
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.333-356
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• 2020

본 연구는 대학생의 공적 자의식과 사회불안의 관계에서 부정적 및 긍정적 평가에 대한 두려움과 긍정적인 사회적 결과 가치 절하의 영향을 알아보고자 하였다. 이때 사회불안을 사회적 상호작용 불안과 수행불안으로 구분하여 차별적 영향력을 확인하였다. 이를 위해 대학생 316명을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 공적 자의식, 부정적 평가에 대한 두려움, 긍정적 평가에 대한 두려움, 긍정적인 사회적 결과의 가치 절하, 사회적 상호작용 불안, 수행 불안은 모두 유의한 정적 관련을 보였다. 둘째, 공적 자의식과 사회불안의 관계에서 부정적 및 긍정적 평가에 대한 두려움과 긍정적인 사회적 결과 가치 절하의 매개효과가 유의한 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 공적 자의식과 사회불안의 관계를 부정적 및 긍정적 평가에 대한 두려움과 긍정적인 사회적 결과의 가치 절하가 매개할 때, 수행 불안에 미치는 영향이 사회적 상호작용 불안에 미치는 영향보다 유의하게 크고, 부정적 평가에 대한 두려움이 매개할 때는 사회적 상호작용 불안에 미치는 영향이 수행 불안에 미치는 영향 보다 유의하게 큰 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 연구결과를 바탕으로 연구의 시사점과 후속 연구를 위한 제언을 논의하였다.

• 치위생과학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.255-263
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• 2023

Background: This study used text mining techniques to determine public perceptions of dental fear, extracted keywords related to dental fear, identified the connection between the keywords, and categorized and visualized perceptions related to dental fear. Methods: Keywords in texts posted on Internet portal sites (NAVER and Google) between 1 January, 2000, and 31 December, 2022, were collected. The four stages of analysis were used to explore the keywords: frequency analysis, term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), centrality analysis and co-occurrence analysis, and convergent correlations. Results: In the top ten keywords based on frequency analysis, the most frequently used keyword was 'treatment,' followed by 'fear,' 'dental implant,' 'conscious sedation,' 'pain,' 'dental fear,' 'comfort,' 'taking medication,' 'experience,' and 'tooth.' In the TF-IDF analysis, the top three keywords were dental implant, conscious sedation, and dental fear. The co-occurrence analysis was used to explore keywords that appear together and showed that 'fear and treatment' and 'treatment and pain' appeared the most frequently. Conclusion: Texts collected via unstructured big data were analyzed to identify general perceptions related to dental fear, and this study is valuable as a source data for understanding public perceptions of dental fear by grouping associated keywords. The results of this study will be helpful to understand dental fear and used as factors affecting oral health in the future.

• 대한불안의학회지
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.22-28
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• 2011

Objective : Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been characterized by a marked sense of anxiety provoked by exposure to one or more social situations. It has been well-known that the cultural characteristics of a society strongly affect the expression of SAD symptoms. The current study attempted to explore clinical and cultural characteristics of social anxiety symptoms in the Korean nonclinical population. Methods : 801 volunteers who participated in the national social anxiety screening day, which was held by Korean academy of anxiety disorders, were invited to complete the self-report version of Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS-SR). A total of 691 participants completed the LSAS-SR and other information related to this study. Results : Social anxiety symptoms were reported by a great percentage of subjects, as displayed by the relatively high mean LSAS scores (44.58 ; SD=25.60). There were no significant differences in total LSAS score according to sex, education, or marital status. The three most fearful or avoided situations for participants, as measured by the percentage of subjects who had a score of more than 3 on each LSAS item were as follows: item 6 (acting, performing, or giving a talk in front of an audience ; 29.67% for fear and 22.72% for avoidance), item 16 (speaking up in a meeting ; 25.62% for fear and 21.56% for avoidance), and item 15 (being the center of attention; 13.89% for fear and 9.70% for avoidance). Conclusion : The Korean participants in this study demonstrated a high level of SAD symptoms. Our subjects reported that they were more likely to be fearful or avoid passive situations such as being the center of attention as compared with results from a study of western society which indicated that western people were more likely to be fearful or avoid active situations. These findings emphasize the importance of considering a patient's cultural background when evaluating SAD symptoms.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.289-295
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• 2017

Background: This study is aimed to evaluate the level of fear and to reduce the overall fear, thereby enabling patients to receive treatment via timely visits. Methods: In a survey conducted by 460 South Korean middle school students, we used 453 data that faithfully responded to the survey. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the factors influencing subjective oral health and dental fear. The significance level used for statistical significance was ${\alpha}=0.05$. Results: The level of fear was higher for upper grade, female students. The factors affecting dental fear were higher for gingival bleeding and dental pain. Regarding factors for dental fear affecting subjective oral health, lower fear of puncture needle and tooth removal tool resulted in higher subjective oral health. Conclusions: The study found that adolescents had higher fear of dental care when they had gingival bleeding and tooth pain. Gingival bleeding is a symptom of early gingival disease and dental pain is likely due to advanced dental caries. These results suggested that it is necessary to have a program to reduce dental fear and anxiety as well as a program to prevent dental diseases through regular periodic screening and education.

• 대한불안의학회지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.106-112
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• 2020

Objective : Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by fear of social threat and exhibits limbic hyper-reactivity toward social stimuli such as emotional faces. A previous study identified the uncinate fasciculus (UF) sub-tract as particularly related to facial memory. To explore the white matter tract relating to face-specific brain regions, we investigated the UF sub-tract in SAD. Methods : The diffusion tensor images of 22 patients with SAD and 20 healthy controls were analyzed with tractography. The UF sub-tract was delineated using the regions of interest of face patches in the anterior temporal lobe and the orbitofrontal cortex, and fractional anisotrophy (FA) and total number of streamlines (ST) were analyzed. We examined the group comparison of FA and ST of the UF sub-tract and correlations of FA and ST with the social anxiety symptoms such as the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale (FNE) in SAD. Results : There were no group differences in FA and ST of the UF sub-tract. However, negative correlations were observed between ST of the right UF sub-tract and severity of social anxiety symptoms (LSAS, r_s=-0.480, p=0.024; SIAS, r_s=-0.580, p=0.005; SPS, r_s=-0.590, p=0.004; FNE, r_s=-0.675, p=0.001) in patients with SAD. Conclusion : Although patients with SAD did not show quantitative abnormalities in the UF sub-tact connecting face-specific brain regions, this structure seems to play a role in the symptom severity of SAD.

• 치위생과학회지
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.20-29
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• 2017

본 연구는 $IDAF-4C^+$를 국내 실정에 적절하게 적용할 수 있도록 수정 보완하여, 치과 방문 환자의 치과 불안 정도를 평가할 수 있는 도구를 개발하고 타당도와 신뢰도를 평가하고자 시행하였다. 치과 불안 및 공포 원 도구 23문항을 번역한 후 번역 정확도, 내용분석 및 내용타당도 검증을 통하여 3문항을 삭제하고 14문항을 수정하여 총 20문항을 분석하였다. 연구 결과 탐색적 요인분석에 의한 요인 적재량이 0.4 이하인 1개의 문항이 삭제되었으며, 선행연구의 이론구조에 맞지 않게 적재된 1개의 문항이 삭제된 결과 18문항들이 추출되었다. 치과 불안 및 공포 측정 도구의 하위요인으로는 치과 불안, 공포, 자극으로 구분되었다. 또한 확인적 요인분석을 통한 측정 도구의 각 하위별 적합지수를 충족시키기 위해 4개 문항이 삭제되어, 최종 3개의 하위요인의 14문항으로 구성된 측정 모델의 적합도는 기준을 충족하였다. 모든 요인의 개념신뢰도, 표준화 회귀 계수값이 일반적 기준을 충족시켜 집중타당도가 입증되었다. 모든 요인의 평균분산추출값은 각 요인 간 상관관계 제곱값보다 크게 나타나 판별타당도도 입증되었다. 내적일관성을 검증한 결과 Cronbach's ${\alpha}$는 치과 불안 항목 0.920, 공포 항목 0.613, 자극 항목 0.866으로 나타나 신뢰할 만한 수준의 측정도구임을 나타냈다. 한국어판 $IDAF-4C^+$의 타당도와 신뢰도는 적합하다고 검증되었다. 향후 국내 환자의 치과 불안 및 공포 조절 도구로 임상과 연구에 활용되어 구강건강 증진에 도움을 줄 수 있을 것으로 생각된다.

• 동의신경정신과학회지
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.33-42
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• 2023

Objectives: This study was conducted to observe the progression of symptoms according to the treatment period of patients with social anxiety disorder who received complex Korean medicine treatment. Methods: The medical records of 25 patients who were diagnosed with social anxiety disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, and received complex Korean medicine treatment (herbal medicine, acupuncture, and Korean psychotherapy) for 12 weeks were analyzed. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Korean-Social Avoidance and Distress scale (K-SAD), and the Korean-Fear of Negative Evaluation (K-FNE) were measured at the initial hospital visit and during the 4, 8, and 12 weeks of treatment to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Missing values were replaced with the average evaluation index value at that time. Results: 1) Statistically significant changes in STAI-X1, STAI-X2, BDI-II, BAI, K-SAD, and K-FNE scores were seen according to the time of treatment. 2) When scores were compared between each treatment time point, STAI-X2 and BDI-II showed statistically significant changes between the initial visit and four weeks of treatment, the initial visit and eight weeks of treatment, and the initial visit and 12 weeks of treatment. STAI-X1 and K-FNE showed statistically significant changes between the initial visit and eight weeks of treatment and the initial visit and 12 weeks of treatment. There was a statistically significant change in BAI scores between the initial visit and the 12th week of treatment. Conclusions: Complex Korean medicine treatment alleviated anxiety, depression, fear, and avoidance of social situation symptoms in patients with social anxiety disorder. The longer the treatment period, the more symptoms tended to be alleviated. However, the evidence should be supplemented with prospective, controlled research.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.183-192
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• 2018

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-induced psychiatric disorder characterized by impaired fear extermination, hyperarousal, anxiety, depression, and amnesic symptoms that may involve the release of monoamines in the fear circuit. The present study measured several anxiety-related behavioral responses to examine the effects of berberine (BER) on symptoms of anxiety in rats after single prolonged stress (SPS) exposure, and to determine if BER reversed the dopamine (DA) dysfunction. Rats received BER (10, 20, or 30 mg/kg, intraperitoneally, once daily) for 14 days after SPS exposure. BER administration significantly increased the time spent in the open arms and reduced grooming behavior during the elevated plus maze test, and increased the time spent in the central zone and the number of central zone crossings in the open field test. BER restored neurochemical abnormalities and the SPS-induced decrease in DA tissue levels in the hippocampus and striatum. The increased DA concentration during BER treatment may partly be attributed to mRNA expression of tyrosine hydroxylase and the DA transporter in the hippocampus, while BER exerted no significant effects on vesicular monoamine transporter mRNA expression in the hippocampus of rats with PTSD. These results suggest that BER had anxiolytic-like effects on behavioral and biochemical measures associated with anxiety. These findings support a role for reduced anxiety altered DAergic transmission and reduced anxiety in rats with PTSD. Thus, BER may be a useful agent to treat or alleviate psychiatric disorders like those observed in patients with PTSD.