• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 2007

Objectives : Schizophrenia is equally distributed in both sexes. However, later-onset, milder psychopathology, and better outcome are associated with the females. This reason is thought to be partly due to the estrogen system. Recently, it was suggested that estrogen receptor 1(ESR1) gene polymorphisms might affect the expression of ESR1 and were associated with several psychiatric disorders. Thus, we investigated the association between two single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) in the ESR1 gene and Korean schizophrenic patients in this study. Methods : Genotype, allele, and haplotype frequencies of the two SNPs(rs 2234693 and rs 2228480) were analyzed between 218 Korean controls and 158 Korean schizophrenic patients. Also, age of onset and negative symptom scale scores according to genotypes were analyzed in the patients with schizophrenia. Results : There was a significant difference in allele frequencies of rs 2234693 between the schizophrenic patients and the controls(p=0.03). Genotype distributions(p=0.03) and allele frequencies(p=0.01) of rs 2234693 were significantly different between the female schizophrenic patients and the female controls. The frequency of TC-CC genotypes compared with TT genotype in the female schizophrenic patients was significantly higher than that in the female controls(OR=2.36). The mean age of onset in the schizophrenic patients with TC-CC genotypes was significantly lower than that in the patients with TT genotype. The frequency of rs 2234693C- rs 2228480G haplotype in the female schizophrenic patients was relatively higher than that in the female controls. Conclusions : These results of our study support the possibility that the ESR1 gene polymorphisms might be involved in the susceptibility of females to schizophrenia and play a role in sex difference of schizophrenia.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2016

Objective : This study was conducted to evaluate the relationships between selective attention bias for fear stimuli and hallucination in patients with schizophrenia Method : A total of 66 patients with schizophrenia admitted to psychiatry clinics were included in the study. Selective attention bias was measured by the dot-probe task. Patient symptoms were measured using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale, Psychotic Symptom Rating Scale (PSYRATS), Korean version of the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder, and Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale. Results : Selective attention bias was correlated with the hallucination subscale of PSYTATS (r=0.268, p=0.029). No correlation was found between selective attention bias and other clinical measures. There was no significant difference, but a statistical trend was found (p=0.092) in hallucination severities between the biased and non-biased groups. Conclusion : The results suggest that selective attention bias for fear stimuli is associated with auditory hallucination. This preliminary study suggests the possibility of correlation between auditory hallucination in the psychotic domain and anxiety of the affective component.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.50-57
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• 2021

Objectives Clozapine is the most effective atypical antipsychotic agent for the treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), however, only 40%-70% of TRS patients respond to clozapine. Moreover, TRS encompasses various symptom dimensions. Therefore, augmentation with other medications for clozapine is frequently applied. However, the prescription pattern of clozapine and combined medications in Korea is yet to be examined. This study aims to investigate the maintenance treatment pattern of clozapine and augmentation agents in one Korean tertiary hospital. Methods The patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders under clozapine maintenance, defined as one-year clozapine continuation, were subjected for analysis. Medication data at one-year time-point after clozapine initiation was extracted and analyzed. Results Among total 2897 patients having clozapine prescription experience from January 2000 to December 2018, 1011 patients were on clozapine maintenance. The mean age of clozapine initiation was 30.2 ± 11.3 years, and the maintenance dose of clozapine was 217.8 ± 124.3 mg/day. Combination rate of antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and antidepressants were 43.5%, 25.3%, 38.6%, respectively. Most frequently prescribed drugs in each category were aripiprazole, valproate, and sertraline. Olanzapine equivalent dose of combined antipsychotics was 10.4 ± 7.7 mg/day. Male patients were prescribed higher dose of combined antipsychotics and higher rate of antidepressants. Female patients had later onset of clozapine prescription. Patients with two or more combined antipsychotics were prescribed higher dose of clozapine and higher rate of antidepressants compared to patients with one combined antipsychotic. Conclusions Taken together, among the patients taking clozapine, a substantial rate of patients were under polypharmacy. The present findings based on the real-world prescription pattern could provide the valuable clinical information on the treatment of TRS-related conditions.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.226-244
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• 1996

This study was designed to evaluate the social support network of schizophrenic patients. 64 schizophrenic patients being treated as out-door patient were compared with 30 neurotic control patients. Schizophrenics were divided into positive, subpositive, subnegative and negative subgroups by present symptom and social network of both schizophrenics and control group were evaluated. The results are as follows: 1) Social network of schizophrenics was smaller than that of control group. Size of social network of schizophrenics was 10.6 and that of control group was 23.5. 2) In both kin and nonkin, social network of schizophrenics was smaller than that of control group. Of the kin, schizophrenics were more supported by wife or husband, father, and mother, but were less supported by brother, son and other relatives. 3) There was no difference in the kin or nonkin or total supporters between the four subgroups of schizophrenics. But, subgroup of schizophrenics which was divided as having negative symptom had smaller network than control group in active formal and informal supporters. 4) When divided into 4 support areas, schizophrenics was remarkably less supported in emotional, instrumental and appraisal support area than control group, but there was no difference in the informational support areas. 5) Compared with control group, schizophrenics more often mentioned parent and ten often mentioned nonkin supporter as the one that is most important to him. 6) Schizophrenics had smaller cluster and less leisure activity than control group. Subgroup of schizophrenics who was divided as having negative symptom had less frequency of leisure activity than other subgroups.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the association of personality characteristics with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). Methods: Four hundred and fifty one college students in Gyeonggi-do completed the revised version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) and a questionnaire and collected data were analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 25.0 software (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Mean values of the number of positive answers of TMD symptoms were significantly higher in higher scorers on hypochondriasis (Hs), depression (D), paranoia (Pa) (Hs>60, D>64, Pa>59) (p<0.01). Higher scorers on Hs, hysteria (Hy), schizophrenia (Sc), Pa, psychasthenia (Pt) (Hy>64, Sc>64, Pt>64) exhibited significantly higher mean values of the number of positive answers of contributing factors for TMD (p<0.01, p<0.001). Low scorers on social introversion ($Si{\leq}44$) exhibited significantly lower mean value of the number of positive answers of contributing factors for TMD than high or moderate scorers on Si (Si>64, 45-64) (p<0.01, p<0.05). The percentage of subjects who responded that they had at least one TMD symptom was significantly higher in higher scorers on Hs, Pt, D (p<0.05, p<0.01). The significantly higher percentage of higher scorers on D, Pa reported at least one contributing factor for TMD (p<0.05). The percentage of subjects who responded that they had at least one TMD symptom or one contributing factor for TMD was significantly different among three groups divided by T-score on Si (p<0.01, p<0.05). T-scores of Hs, D, Hy, Pt and Sc showed significant correlation with the numbers of TMD symptoms and contributing factors for TMD, respectively (p<0.001). A correlation was found between T-score of Pd and the number of TMD symptoms (p<0.001). T-score of Si correlated to the number of contributing factors for TMD (p<0.001). Conclusions: Most clinical scales of MMPI-2 were found to be related to TMD. Psychological assessment including MMPI-2 may play a role in predicting treatment outcome and planning treatment of TMD.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.135-138
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• 2005

Amisulpride is a newly developed atypical antipsychotic agent effective in treating the positive and negative symptom of schizophrenia. Over-dose of amisulpride can cause hypocalcemia and thus may lead to QT prolongation. We report a case of hypocalcemia and QT prolongation. The QT prolongation was normalized after calcium supplement.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.353-362
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• 2014

Objectives : The purpose of the study is to investigate the xerostomia in the chronic severe psychiatric patients in Korea because there were few reports on xerostomia in the psychiatric patients. Methods : The subjects were 61 psychiatric patients in the mental hospital by convenience cluster sampling. A self-reported symptom questionnaire was filled out by the three researchers on the basis of medical records by the informed consent. The stimulated salivary flow rate of the patients was measured by saliva sampling. Results : The subjects consisted of 45.9% of male and 54.1% of female. High school graduation accounted for 40.0% and 20.0% did not attend the school. The majority of the patients were medicaid recipients. Schizophrenia accounted for 86.9% and most patients were long term care recipients. A total of 68.9% of the patients suffered from salivary dysfunction. The medication in schizophrenia seemed to decrease the stimulated salivary flow rate and made the patients difficult in chewing and swallowing due to xerostomia and low saliva secretion(p<0.05). Conclusions : Medication in schizophrenic patients caused the salivary dysfunction. So the collaboration between the psychiatry doctors and dental hygienists is very important to improve the salivary secretion in the schizophrenic patients. The continuous and long term care of the xerostomia will help the patients maintain the good oral hygiene.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.147-152
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• 2001

Objective : It has been thought that estrogen has neuroleptic like effect in women schizophrenic patients. This study aimed to investigate neuroleptic side-effects severity in women with schizophrenia and to investigate their putative association with variations in sex steroids over menstrual cycle. Based on the estrogen theory, The author hypothesized that parkinsonian side-effects would be exacerbated when estrogen levels were high. Method : 26 schizophrenic women were assessed using the ESRS(Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale) and estrogen analysis. Tests were conducted twice, in the mid luteal and mid follicular phase. Result : It was hypothesized that high level of estrogen would lead to an exacerbation of parkinsonian side-effects but the results indicated that parkinsonian side effects decreased overall when estrogen levels were high. This effects were more marked for the group taking typical neuroleptics than those taking atypical neuroleptics. Conclusion : The results of this study suggest that estrogen and progesteron may reduce the severity of neuroleptic induced extrapyramidal side effects over menstrual cycle in women with schizophrenia. It was concluded that estrogen has different effects on dopamine dynamics in the mesolimbic and mesostriatal pathways according to estrogen, progesteron, catecol estrogen, prolactine.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.416-429
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• 2012

This study was to assess the effects of a recovery oriented integrated rehabilitation program on cognitive social function, rehabilitation motivation, and mental health recovery. This program is involved motivation enhancement program with 4 subprograms composed of cognitive rehabilitation, emotion management, vocational rehabilitation, family education program. The subjects were 34 patirents with schizophrenia who had been hospitalized at National Mental Hospital on local area. The study was a non-equivalent control group non-synchronized design with two groups, an experimental group(18 patients) and a control group(16 patients). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 12. 0. The results of the data show that there was not a significant increase in the symptom, cognitive and social function. But there was a significant increase in readiness of rehabilitation(maintenance, p=.027) and mental health recovery (p=.039). Short term recovery oriented integrated rehabilitation programs in inpatient settings are more available for motivation of rehabilitation and mental health recovery than symptom reduction or functional improvement. Therefore there should be more efforts to create more recovery oriented service provision in clinical settings.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.131-139
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• 1995

Clozapine, on atypical antipsychotic drug, has been estimated to be a major improvement in the treatment-refractory schizophrenic patients. We evaluated the clozapine efficacy in the treatment of schizophrenic patients who are refractory to classic neuroleptics. The patients were assigned in a prospective, open, comparative trial for 12 weeks. Following an dose titration, 33 inpatients with treatment-refractory schizophrenia diagnosed according to DSM-III-R were given a clozapine(N=17, approximate 300-600mg/day) or haloperidol(N=16, approximate 20-30 mg/day) for 12 weeks. The clinical state was assessed before treatment, and 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th week during treatment using Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS). Assessment of side effects were mode weekly using Simpson-Angus Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects and Adverse Events-Somatic Symptoms. Clozapine produces significant improvement than haloperidol on the BPRS and PANSS scores. 77% (13/17) of the clozapine-treated patients were categorized as responders, who showed at least 20% decrease in total BPRS scores, compared with 31% (5/16) of haloperidol-treated patients. Extrapyramidal side effects occurred in only one patient in clozapine group, but nine patients in haloperidol group. Salivation, sleepiness, constipation and hypotension were most frequent adverse effects observed in clozapine group. There was no significant changes in total WBC and neutrophil during clozapine treatment. These findings suggest that clozapine is on effective antipsychotic drug for the Korean treatment-refractory schizophrenic patients, who are nonresponsive to or unable to tolerate classcal antipsychotic drugs due to extrapyramidal side effects.