• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.99-109
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• 2018

Objectives: To analyze the reports of qualitative research about depressed mood and suicidal ideation of Korean Seniors. Methods: Eleven published qualitative research studies were selected for analysis. We extracted common topics and factors of each stage, Selected factors were paralleled and synthesized to make a flow chart of the phenomena. Results: Depressed mood arousals of Korean seniors are categorized by causation factors, which include economic, psychosomatic, and social factors, and positive-negative coping strategies, which include cognitive-behavioral factors. Suicidal experiences are categorized as ideation, suicidal attempt, and after-suicide stage. In the latter, participants reported three types of lifestyles by their enthusiasm for 'being alive'. Conclusions: Through the qualitative synthesis of research, we could analyze and categorize major factors and coping strategies of participants who exhibited a depressed mood or suicidal ideation.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.245-247
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• 2011

There were only a few reports of mercury on pulmonary artery. However, there is no data on surgery related mercury dissemination. The objective of the present article is to describe one case of postoperative injected mercury dissemination. A 19-year-old man presented severe neck pain including meningeal irritation sign and abdominal pain after injection of mercury for the purpose of suicide. Radiologic study showed injected mercury in the neck involving high cervical epidural space and subcutaneous layer of abdomen. Partial hemilaminectomy and open mercury evacuation of spinal canal was performed. For the removal of abdominal subcutaneous mercury, C-arm guided needle aspiration was done. After surgery, radiologic study showed disseminated mercury in the lung, heart, skull base and low spinal canal. Neck pain and abdominal pain were improved after surgery. During 1 month after surgery, there was no symptom of mercury intoxication except increased mercury concentration of urine, blood and hair. We assumed the bone work during surgery might have caused mercury dissemination. Therefore, we recommend minimal invasive surgical technique for removal of injected mercury. If open exposures are needed, cautious surgical technique to prohibit mercury dissemination is necessary and normal barrier should be protected to prevent the migration of mercury.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2013

School bullying has become a major social problem in Korea after the emergence of media reports on children who committed suicide after being victimized by bullies. In this article, we review the characteristics of bullying, and investigate the role of the pediatrician in the prevention of and intervention against bullying and school violence. Bullying can take on many forms such as physical threat, verbal humiliation, malicious rumors, and social ostracism. The prevalence of bullying in various countries is approximately 10% to 20%. In Korea, the prevalence of school violence is similar but seems to be more intense because of the highly competitive environment. From our review of literature, we found that children who were bullied had a significantly higher risk of developing psychosomatic and psychosocial problems such as headache, abdominal pain, anxiety, and depression than those who were not bullied. Hence, it is important for health practitioners to detect these signs in a child who was bullied by questioning and examining the child, and to determine whether bullying plays a contributing role when a child exhibits such signs. Pediatricians can play an important role in the prevention of or intervention against school violence along with school authorities, parents, and community leaders. Moreover, guidelines to prevent school violence, such as the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, KiVa of the Finish Ministry of Education, and Connected Kids: Safe, Strong, Secure of the American Academy Pediatrics, should be implemented.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.125-135
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• 2023

Purpose: The number of patients suffering from depression is rapidly increasing worldwide, and by 2030, it is expected to pose a severe social and economic burden. Reports suggest that approximately 30% of subjects with symptoms of depression do not attempt treatment. Therefore, predicting the characteristics of subjects with depressive symptoms who have not even attempted counseling treatment is essential to increase the participation rate for such treatment. This study intends to predict the participation rates for psychological counseling treatment for depression among subjects with depressive symptoms. Methods: This study used data from the 2021 Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS). Data analysis was carried out using a decision tree to design a model that predicted participation in psychological counseling for depression. Results: The results showed that subjects aged 65 to 74 had difficulty understanding the explanations of medical staff even though they did not have cognitive impairment. Only 11.1% of this group received psychological counseling, which was the lowest rate among the various age groups. Among the subjects, 62.4% of those aged 19-44 or 45-64, who had suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide, received psychological counseling and this was the highest rate among the age groups surveyed. Conclusion: The identification of people showing depressive symptoms is crucial for encouraging them to undertake treatment. Also, proper depression-oriented medical services should be developed and implemented for people with depressive symptoms who exhibit a blind spot towards attempting treatment.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 2007

Purpose: There have been relatively few reports of chlorophenoxy herbicide poisoning. The purpose of this study is to analyze the general characteristics and clinical aspects of the chlorophenoxy herbicide intoxicated patients in Korea. Methods: We prospectively evaluated the chlorophenoxy herbicide intoxicated patients visiting to the 38 emergency medical centers in Korea from the 1 August 2005 to the 31 July 2006. Results: 24 patients were enrolled during the study periods. Their mean age was 55.7 years old. The median amount of the chlorophenoxy herbicide intoxicated is 150 mL. The most frequent location where the patients obtained and took the chlorophenoxy herbicide was their home. Frequent compounds involving chlorophenoxy herbicide poisoning were dicamba(66.7%), MCPP(16.7%), and 2,4-D(12.5%). The most common symptom of the patients was confusion and vomiting. 16 patients(66.7%) intended to suicide. 3 patients out of 24 patients(13.0%) were died. Conclusion: There were 24 patients intoxicated by the chlorophenoxy herbicide during the study periods. The mortality rate was 13.0%. The suicidal attempts and the numbers of death involving chlorophenoxy herbicide were high in Korea.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.290-298
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• 2013

The genus Mycobacterium includes crucial animal and human pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium leprae, and Mycobacterium bovis. Although it is important to understand the genetic basis for their virulence and persistence in host, genetic analysis in mycobacteria was hampered by a lack of sufficient genetic tools. Therefore, many functional vectors as molecular genetic tools have been designed for understanding mycobacterial biology, and the application of these tools to mycobacteria has accelerated the study of mechanisms involved in virulence and gene expression. To overcome the pre-existing problems in genetic manipulation of mycobacteria, this paper reports new vector systems as effective genetic tools in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Three vectors were developed; pKOTs is a suicide vector for mutagenesis containing a temperature-sensitive replication origin (TSRO) and the sacB gene encoding levansucrase as a counterselectable marker. pMV306lacZ is an integrative lacZ transcriptional fusion vector that can be inserted into chromosomal DNA by site-specific recombination. pTnMod-OKmTs is a minitransposon vector harboring the TSRO that can be used in random mutagenesis. It was demonstrated in this study that these vectors effectively worked in M. smegmatis. The vector systems reported here are expected to successfully applicable to future research of mycobacterial molecular genetics.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.253-258
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• 1999

The fluoxetine is one of the most frequently prescribed drugs for the treatment of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD). This has been known as one of the most safest medication. But since the advent of this drug, there have been several reports of side effects-the mania and suicidal ideation-encountered during coadministration of fluoxetine with or without other psychotropic drugs. We experienced a case of 20 years old male OCD patient who developed into abrupt manic state and also was preoccupied with intense suicidal ideation following fluoxetine use. He was a only child in his family and his father had a history of alcoholism about 15years ago. Our patient's obsessive-compulsive symptoms have been occured since puberty. His OCD symptoms and anxiety were aggravated since joining the army. Beside these facts, we could not find any other psychiatric history such as depressive disoder and bipolar disorder. We used the fluoxetine starting dosage of 20mg and increased to 40mg at second week. About 3 weeks after the treatment, he developed sudden manic symptom and more aggravated suicidal ideation without any OCD symptoms. He felt vitalized and energetic without having enough sleep and food. These symptoms were ceased over two weeks by stopping medication. Up to this point, the reason why fluoxetine induces mania and suicidal preoccupation is unclear. But somehow the fluoxetine has effects on serotonin receptor and serotonin-dopamine regulations, thus we could make an assumption that fluoxetine can induce mania, extrapyramidal symptoms(EPS) and suicidal ideation in some part of the serotonin unbalanced patients. We think this would be the first report to remark on fluoxetine's suicidal and manic side effects in Korea. So here we present the case with the summary of reviewed articles.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.48-51
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• 2011

Powered by compressed air, a nail gun is an essential alternative tool to a hammer on any construction site. This useful machine launches nails at high speed, automatically embedding them in a piece of wood in only a fraction of a second. In spite of its convenience, life-threatening and fatal nail gun injuries can occur when a nail gun is misused, such as in a suicide attempt, or when the operator has insufficient training because combustion nail guns are capable of firing projectiles at velocities higher than 150 m per second. Although injuries by nail guns are rarely reported, there have been reports of nail gun injuries to the head and the trachea in Korea. In the emergency room, the authors experienced a patient injured by an accidental shooting of a nail gun while working in construction. In that accident, a nail penetrated the patient's cervical vertebra through the left cheek. This report is aimed at studying medical treatment for patients with penetrating injuries caused by nail guns.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.104-110
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• 2022

This paper aims to analyze discourse metaphors by paying attention to Seoul mayoral by-election, mainly focusing on election campaign and its related news articles. The 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election was held because the former mayor died in an apparent suicide after he was accused of years of sexual harassment to a former secretary. But in the run-up to the by-election, the newly coined word 'alleged victim' from the ruling party caused a big controversy because the party attempted to deny the authenticity of the secretary's claim by calling her "an alleged victim," instead of "a victim" to defend the former mayor who is a member of the ruling party, implying that the woman's claim is just an allegation with no proof. Thus, this paper has analyzed how news stories were reported with regard to the word 'alleged victim' poser on news stories in two Korean quality newspapers, a conservative newspaper (Chosun Ilbo) and a liberal newspaper (Hankyoreh) from March 1 to April 1, 2021 and analyzed them with the framework of Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory(1980). The findings are as follows: (i) the conservative newspaper reports this issue much more than the liberal newspaper; (ii) both quality newspapers follow the metaphor principles by Conceptual Metaphor Theory; (iii) the conservative newspaper is more likely to follow the Strick Father model (a conservative model) while the liberal newspaper is to follow the Nurturant Parent model (a liberal model), thus indicating that each newspaper's ideology is well represented by the models of Conceptual Metaphor Theory

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.118-125
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• 2019

Purpose: Non-benzodiazepine hypnotic drugs (including zolpidem) are associated with an increased risk of suicide and suicidal ideation. Considering the wide usage of zolpidem, this drug should be considered a possible etiology for stupor or coma in any patient exposed to this drug. However, there are no reports on zolpidem blood levels in emergency department patients in Korea. We therefore reviewed the analyzed data of a toxicology laboratory at one university affiliated hospital. Methods: The sex, age, chief symptoms, suspiciousness of poisoning, and presumption of poison were analyzed from January 2018 to June 2019. The detection frequency and level of zolpidem in the patient blood were compared to the mental changes presented, which is the main consequence of zolpidem. Results: A total of 229 toxicological analyses, requested to a toxicological laboratory at one university affiliated hospital, were reviewed. Among 229 patients, the mean age was 54.3±20.7 years old with 113 women and 116 men. 8.7% of patients have psychiatric illness and 39.7% were poisoned intentionally. The chief symptoms detected were: mental change 55.0%, gastrointestinal 14.4%, cardiovascular 10.5%, focal neurological 7.4%, respiratory 3.5%, none 8.7%, and unknown 0.4%. A request for detailed reports revealed that causative poisons were specified only in 20.1% cases. Zolpidem was detected in 22.3% cases (51/229), with median blood level 1.26 mg/L (interquartile 0.1, 5.06 mg/L) and urine 0.90 mg/L (interquartile 0.11, 5.6 mg/L). Furthermore, zolpidem was more frequently detected in toxicology analysis of patients where mental change was the primary symptom, as compared to other symptoms (32.5% vs. 9.7%, p<0.01). Conclusion: This study reported the blood level of zolpidem in suspected poisoning patients admitted to the emergency department.