• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.603-610
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• 2020

This study examined the mental health-related factors of Korean adolescents, especially focusing on the influence of internet use. This study analyzed the raw data from the 14th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2018. The study population was 60,040, with 50.7% male students and 49.3% female students, and 49.7% high school students and 50.3% middle school students. The dependent variables were stress, sadness and despair, suicidal ideation, suicidal plan, and suicidal attempt. The independent variables were gender and age, health behaviors, and time using the internet. Logistic regression analysis was applied to derive the related factors. For all dependent variables, the main contributing variables were gender, grade, economic status, and academic performance. The mental health of adolescents was related to various factors. In particular, the time using the internet was linearly related to the degree of stress, and a higher student group of time using the internet had a more significant effect on sadness, despair, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal plans. In conclusion, the time using the internet has harmful effects on the mental health of Korean adolescents.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.549-559
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors of pregnancy and the relationship between pregnancy experience and suicidal behavior in 284 pregnancy experienced adolescents aged 13-19 years. The suicidal ideation was 57.8%, the suicide plan was 37.7% and the suicide attempt was 37.3% among female adolescents with pregnancy experience. By multivariate logistic regression analysis, female adolescents who experienced pregnancy had 1.44 times more suicidal ideation, 2.39 times more suicide plans, and 2.38 times more suicide attempts than those without suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts. Because of the high correlation between pregnancy experience and suicidal behavior in female adolescents, school and education authorities need systematic education and countermeasures to prevent adolescents' pregnancy and risk of suicide after pregnancy. And above all, convergent support and interest in home, school and community comprehensive area should be supported.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.109-123
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between views on suicide, death, and life and lifetime suicidal attempts in the Korean context. Methods: Multiple logistic regression model was tested using data from Korean General Social Survey of 2009. We utilized the nationally representative survey data obtained via multistage stratified area probability sampling design from 1,599 respondents aged ${\geq}18$ years. Results: The proportion of lifetime suicidal attempts was 12.1% of entire sample in Korea. Some components of views on suicide and death influenced significantly on lifetime suicidal attempts after adjusting for demographic and health-related factors. The positive view on suicide(OR=0.76, 95% CI: 0.62-0.94), the naturalistic view on afterlife(OR=0.37, 95% CI: 0.67-0.99) and death concern(OR=0.67, 95% CI: 0.55-0.83) were risk factors of lifetime suicidal attempts. In contrast, the social responsibility view on suicide(OR=1.17, 95% CI: 1.00-1.37) and the transcendental view on afterlife(OR=1.25, 95% CI: 1.02-1.54) lowered the risk. Conclusions: Practical implications of the findings were discussed exploring policy evidences to screen high risk groups out and to reframe educational programs for suicide prevention. Strategic health messages need to be developed and transmitted for prevention of suicide.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2004

Objectives:Recently, polymorphisms of several serotonin genes have been suggested to be associated with suicide, but the results are still unclear. We examined whether the T102C polymorphisms of the serotonin 2A receptor gene and the G861C polymorphisms of the serotonin 1B receptor gene were associated with suicidal behavior using drug intoxication. Methods:The subjects were 52 patients who visited emergency room with suicidal behaviors. Fifty controls were selected from healthy volunteers matched for sex and age to the suicide subjects. The polymorphisms were analyzed with TaqMan$^{(R)}$ assay using primers based on previous studies. Results:The T102C polymorphism of the serotonin 2A receptor gene showed no significant difference between the suicidal attempters and controls in both genotype and allele frequency analyses(p=0.179 and p=0.422, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference between the suicidal attempters and the controls in the G861C polymorphism of the serotonin 1B receptor gene and any significant effect of the genotype distributions or the allele frequencies was not observed(p=0.092 and p=0.987, respectively). Conclusion:These findings suggest that the T102C polymorphism in serotonin 2A receptor gene and the G861C polymorphism in serotonin 1B receptor gene are not related to the susceptibility to suicide attempts using drugs. To clarify the genetic influences of the serotonergic system on suicidal behavior, the polymorphisms of other candidate genes in the serotonergic system should be studied with larger numbers of subjects.

• Journal of the Korean society of biological therapies in psychiatry
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.129-141
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• 2018

Suicide is a behavior that is intended to cause death by itself and requires medical treatment, resulting in suicidal attempt or completion. Suicide causes loss of life, damages the body, costs a lot of medical expenses, and causes families to fall into sorrow and suffering therefore this suicide is a huge loss to family and society. There have been attempts to reduce and prevent suicide by understanding the mechanism of suicide. The mechanism of suicide can be thought of as psychological mechanism and biological mechanism. In the past, if we considered the psychological and biological mechanisms separately, the development of neuroscience now connects and integrates these two. Psychological factors affect biological factors and biological temperaments also affect perception or thinking about the situation and increase psychological vulnerability. Distant factors in suicidal behavior-such as childhood adversity and family and genetic predisposition-increase the lifetime risk of suicide. They alter the response to stress and other processes through changes in gene expression and regulation of emotional and behavioral characteristics. Distant factors affect the biological system and consequently changes in these systems can increase the risk of suicide. In other words, the distal factor does not directly induce suicidal behavior but rather acts indirectly through developmental or mediating factors. These mediating factors are impulsive aggressive and anxious trait, and chronic use of substances. The mechanism of this disorder is the abnormality of the serotonin system and the abnormality of the lipid level. Proximal factors are associated with the onset of suicide events and include changes in the major neurotransmitter systems, inflammatory changes, and dysfunction of glial cells in the brain. A series of studies, including a variety of research methods and postmortem and in-vivo imaging studies, show the impairment of the serotonergic neurotransmitter system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response system for suicidal behavior. These disorders lead to suicidal behavior due to difficulty in cognitive control of mood, pessimism, reactive aggression, abnormality in problem solving abilities, excessive response to negative social signals, severe emotional distress, and cognitive dysregulation of suicidal ideation.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2020

Objectives : Evidence regarding the association between untreated depression in adolescence and suicidal risk in male young adults is scarce. We aimed to assess the effect of untreated illness during adolescence on the suicidal risk and attempt after that first episode. Methods : As part of a cross-sectional study, between May 2017 and April 2018, a total of 260 patients with currently unipolar or bipolar depression were included in the final analysis. Multiple linear and logistic regression analysis were performed to evaluate the association between untreated mood disorder in adolescence and its effect on the suicidal risk and attempt. Results : In total 260 patients, 189 were classified as untreated group. The proportion of suicide attempts, total depression score, suicidal risk and number of suicide attempts were significantly higher in the untreated group. The most predictive factors of suicide attempts were history of untreated depression [Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR)=4.19, 95% Confidence Interval (CI)=2.25-7.81, p<0.001] and diagnosis of bipolar depression (AOR=2.60, 95% CI=1.52-4.46, p<0.001). Conclusions : Although the untreated depression suggests higher rates of suicidality, a significant proportion (86.7%) of adolescent depression in this study did not receive psychiatric treatment. Future research should be needed to find better ways to decrease barriers in using mental health treatment and its contribution to reduction and prevention of adverse outcome.

• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 2017

Objectives : Severe mental illness is a major risk factor for suicide. This study aimed to identify characteristics of patients who died by suicide among subjects who had been received service from a community mental health center. Methods : We searched individuals who had committed suicide in Gwangju Bukgu Community Mental Health Center since 2006. Sociodemographic and clinical data were gathered from medical records and their case managers and they were compared with those of general members in the center. Characteristics of schizophrenia patients who died by suicide were particularly summarized. Results : Twelve person committed suicide between 2006 and 2016. The characteristics of those who died by suicide were male (67%), diagnosis of schizophrenia (75%), aged below 50 (83%), unemployed (92%), past history of psychiatric hospitalization (100%), recent admission within 3 months (67%), past history of suicidal attempt (78%), family history of schizophrenia (58%), poor adherence to medication (58%), and use of daily rehabilitation program (42%). Ten out of twelve (83%) showed warning sign for suicide. All identified method of suicide in patients with schizophrenia was jumping from high building. Many patients with schizophrenia, who committed suicide, suffered from comorbid depressive symptoms (67%) and auditory hallucination (78%). Conclusion : Case managers should pay attention to and carefully manage individuals who showed suicidal warning, particularly with risk factors for suicide, such as unemployment, admission state or recent discharge from psychiatric hospital, poor adherence to medication, family history of schizophrenia, and a history of suicidal attempt.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.251-260
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to determine the association of the Body Shape Index (ABSI) with suicide ideation and suicide attempts by controlling the body mass index (BMI), as well as general characteristics that may affect suicide. The study has used The Sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2013 to 2015. A total of 13,155 participants were studied, excluding those who had no information on variables that could affect suicidal ideations and suicidal attempts. The chi-squared test and the multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed. The results of the analysis showed that those who had obesity in BMI were more likely to commit suicide and suicide than those who were in 'standard' in BMI. In ABSI, Q3 group was more likely to commit suicide than Q1 group. The number of suicide attempt was significantly higher in the group with Q3 in ABSI than in Q1 group (3.623 times (95% CI 1.027-12.772)). The results of this study suggest that a higher ABSI compared to BMI means that it is possible to make a more extreme choice of suicide attempt rather than suicide ideation.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.91-101
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• 2016

Using 1,419 lower-income group participating self-sufficiency program in Gangwon Province, this study investigated what would affect suicidal ideation of low-income. For the purpose showed significant differences in suicide ideation, as living status, subjective economic status, family friends neighbors contact frequency, using social services, chronic disease or not, drinking frequency, depression, the suicide of a family or someone close, suicide attempt by setting the independent variables was performed logistic regression analysis. The results showed that neighbors contact frequency, depression, the suicide of a family or someone close, suicide attempts affect suicidal ideation. It was an unusual result in lower-income group participating self-sufficiency program do not appear as factors affecting suicidal ideation. Based on the findings, this study provides suggestions to prevent suicide of lower-income and future research agenda.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.465-473
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• 2008

Purpose: Suicide has been considered a large public health concern in recent years because suicide mortality has been increasing rapidly. This study was done to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of a suicide attempt among adolescents in South Korea. Methods: The data of the 2006 Youth Health Risk Behavior web-based Survey collected by the Korean Center for Disease Control was analyzed using logistic regression for this study. Results: The prevalence of a suicide attempt was 5.2% in South Korea. The risk factors of a suicide attempt were suicidal ideation (odds 31.83), depression (odds 7.98), drug use (odds 4.67), currently smoking (odds 3.19), feeling unhappiness (odds 2.77), stress (odds 2.60), currently drinking alcohol (odds 2.39), sexual activity (odds 2.33), living with neither parent (odds 2.24), initial alcohol drinking by age 9 (odds 1.80), health status (odds 2.15), skipped breakfast (odds 1.75), disease (odds 1.65), and school records (odds 1.22). Conclusion: Suicide screening and prevention programs should be developed, considering these risk factors. Suicide prevention programs should be applied to the at risk population prior to a suicide attempt.