• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.17-27
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• 2010

Objectives: Cocaine has been well known as a representative drug of abuse for its strong reinforcing effect linked to the mesolimbic reward system including dopamine, and such reinforcement leads to the addiction. Acupuncture has been used widely in eastern Asia for the treatment of various diseases including mental disorders and psychiatric problems, and is gathering more interest as one of the complementary and alternative medicines in western countries. In a previous study, we demonstrated that acupuncture at HT7 could affect dopamine release in the mesolimbic system of rats sensitized to alcohol and morphine. This study was designed to investigate whether acupuncture at HT7 could attenuate cocaine intake or not. Material & Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 270-300 g at the start of experiment were trained to self-administer food pellets under a fixed ratio 1 schedule. After the success of acquisition of 100 pellets within 3 h for 3 consecutive days, animals were subjected to surgery whereby Silastic tubing was implanted into right jugular vein and secured with mesh under the anesthetization using pentobarbital injection (50 mg/kg, i.p.). Following recovery, rats were trained to self-administer cocaine (0.25 mg/kg) in daily 2 h sessions under fixed ratio 1 schedule over 10 days. Each treatment was performed on the next day of each establishment of baseline. Results: Results show that acupuncture at HT7, but not at control points, reduced cocaine intake significantly. Acupuncture at HT7 decreased selectively active lever response from $63.15{\pm}3.35$ to $51.46{\pm}3.99$ corresponding $82.12{\pm}5.31%$ compared to basal level. Also, it was demonstrated that the effect of acupuncture was mainly occurred at the half period. Nevertheless, acupuncture at HT7 did not influence the food taking behavior. Conclusions: From the results of this study, it may be suggested that acupuncture at HT7, at least in part, could contribute to the treatment of cocaine abuse.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3597-3609
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• 2012

Purpose: This study was done to develop the multidimensional scale of addictive behavior for adolescents. Methods: The process involved construction of a conceptual framework, initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, and extraction of final items. The participants were 636 adolescents in six middle schools and four high schools. Results: Seventy items were selected for the final scale, and categorized 8 factors explaining 56.5% of total variance. The factors were labeled as game addictive behavior, shopping addictive behavior, mobile phone addictive behavior, nicotine addictive behavior, television addictive behavior, gambling addictive behavior, alcohol addictive behavior, and internet addictive behavior. The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with addictive personality and self-control. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 70 items was .94. Scale scores identified adolescents as addictive behavior group, risk group, and average group. Conclusion: The above findings indicate that the multidimensional scale of addictive behavior for adolescents has good validity and reliability when used with adolescents. More importantly, it provides the first step toward developing a addiction prevention program. Additionally the scales provide an education or guideline, and proper physical and mental health management of youth in research and practice for the promotion of education.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.43
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• pp.205-230
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• 2015

This study aims to compare the differences of crucial factors that are associated with probation warning tickets between sex offenders and non-sex offenders in South Korea. Serious high-profile cases have occurred in recent years which resulted in public and political conners for successful sex offender management and monitoring strategy through community corrections. The official response has been to initiate a series of legislative probation and parole measures by using GPS electronic monitoring system, chemical castration, and sex offender registry and notification. In this context, the current study is designed to explore the major factors that could affect the failure of probation by comparing the differences between sex offenders and non-sex offenders in terms of their major factors which are related to the failure of probation. The failure of probation is measured by the number of warning tickets which would be issued when there is the violation of probation conditions. The data is obtained from Seoul Probation office from January, 29, 2014 to February, 28, 2014. The sample number of sex offenders is 144 and the number of non-sex offenders is 1,460. The data includes the information regarding the offenders who completed their probation order after they were assigned to Seoul Probation in 2013. Furthermore, this study uses the chi-square and logistic regression analysis by using SPSS statistical package program. The result demonstrated that only prior criminal history was statistically significant factor that was related to the number of warning tickets in the sex offender group when other variables were controlled($X^2=25.15$, p<0.05, Nagelkerke $R^2=0.23$)(b=0.19, SE=0.08, p<0.05). By contrast, there were various factors that were associated with the number of warning tickets in non-sex offender group. Specifically, the logistic regression analysis for the non-sex offenders showed that demographic variable(marital status and employment type), offender-victim relationships, alcohol addiction, violent behavior, prior criminal history, community service order, and attendance order were statistically significant factors that were associated with the odds of warning tickets. Further policy implication will be discussed.