• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.104 no.1
• /
• pp.127-132
• /
• 2015

Aim of this study was to investigate the influence of forest experience program on depression, anxiety, and self concept in adolescents living in urban area. A total of 47 adolescents living in Seoul, South Korea were recruited for the study and participated in a series of forest experience programs that the Korea National Park Service had developed. Before and after applying the program, their depression, anxiety, and self concept were evaluated using Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and Offer Self Image Questionnaire-Revised (OSIQ). The outcome measures were analyzed using paired-t tests. CDI score was significantly reduced after the program (before:$12.41{\pm}8.34$, after:$8.65{\pm}9.48$). Excluding 16 participants whose scores of Lie Scale in the RCMAS were more than 8 on the analysis, the total RCMAS score showed significant reduction after the program (before:$14.87{\pm}7.30$, after:$10.81{\pm}7.81$). There was no significant difference in the total score of the total self-image scale in the OSIQ. However, the Self-confidence (SC) which was used as subscale of the OSIQ was significantly higher after the program (before:$29.94{\pm}3.71$, after:$38.11{\pm}6.45$), and the Idealism scale (I) in the OSIQ increased significantly after the program (before:$21.03{\pm}3.80$, after:$23.17{\pm}3.89$). On our analysis, the forest experience program showed considerable positive effects on depression and anxiety in adolescents. This result leads the postulation that the program might be helpful for adolescents to adapt to their surrounding experiences and to achieve improvement in interpersonal relationship.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.107-119
• /
• 1997

Objectives: The psychophysiologic response pattern between healthy subjects and patients with generalized anxiety disorder, and the relationship among anxiety rating scales and those patterns in patients were examined. Methods: Twenty-three patients with generalized anxiety disorder(AD) and 23 healthy subjects were evaluated by Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety(HRSA) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory before baseline stressful tasks. Subjective Units of Distress were evaluated just before baseline period, immediately after stressful tasks, at the end of the entire procedure, and psychophysiologic measures, i.e., skin temperature(ST), electromyographic activity(EMG), heart rate(HR), electrodermal response(EDR) during baseline & rest and during two psychologically stressful tasks (mental arithmetic, TM; talk about a stressful event, TT) were also evaluated. Results: 1) AD group showed significantly higher EMG level during rest after stressful tasks and higher HR level during all period except TM compared to control group. 2) AD group showed lower change in the startle response(SR) of ST, in the SR & the recovery response(RR) of EMG during TM, and in the RR of EDR immediately after TM than control group. AD group showed that the RR of EDR was significantly lower than the SR during stressful tasks. 3) We found that there was significantly negative correlation between state anxiety and the RR of EDR after TT in AD group. We also found that there were significantly positive correlations between HRSA score and the SRs of EDR during stressful tasks, and between state anxiety and the SR of EDR during TT. Conclusion: Our results suggest that patients with generalized anxiety disorder show higher autonomic arousal than healthy subjects and decreased physiologic flexibility or reduced autonomic flexibility.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.72-81
• /
• 2010

Objectives : Early detection and proper management of distress are known to be important for efficient care in cancer patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of distress and to evaluate its influence on quality of life in subjects with breast cancer. Methods : A total of 95 patients were recruited from a breast cancer patient community of a general hospital in Seoul. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale(HADS), the Insomnia Severity Index(ISI), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised(IES-R) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast(FACT-B) were measured. Results : The prevalence of anxiety, depression, insomnia and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom among breast cancer patients was 26.3%, 26.3%, 13.7%, 24.3%, respectively. Nearly half(47.4%) of total subjects were under one or more significant distress, and they showed significantly lower mean FACT-B total score than patients without distress(82.91 vs. 107.20, p<0.001). Distress was negatively correlated with the quality of life to a significant level even in patients who were in normal range of distress scale scores. Conclusion : These results support the importance of regular screening and proper management of distress for breast cancer patients.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.115-129
• /
• 1999

To find the influence of family support degree on the depression of the elderly in a rural area, a questionnaire survey was made toward 163 persons who were more than 65 years old and living in a township at Chollanamdo province from January 1st to February 20th, 1998. The major findings are as follows : 1. By simple analysis significantly associated variables with depression score were residence, adequacy of pocket money, health consciousness, drinking alcohol, smoking, score of activity of daily living(ADL), score of instrumental activities of daily living(IADL), and degree of family support among female respondents(p<0.05). 2. To find the influence of family support on the depression score excluding other associated variables, multiple regression analysis was made and it was found that family support was associated significantly with affective, somatic, psychomotor and psychological domain of depression score among male, and somatic, psychomotor and psychological domain among female(p<0.05). The above finding suggest that family support degree is an important factor to be associated with the depression of the elderly in the rural area. So to deal with the depression of rural elderly, how to make close relation among family members must be considered.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.208-217
• /
• 2001

Background : The objective of this study is proving the basic data for developing a management system for the discharges against medical advice(AMA) by identifying the characteristics of the AMA patients of an university hospital for 10 years. Methods : By using discharge abstract data base, we divided the total discharges(435,254) into two groups, discharge against medical advice and discharge with discharge order. We confirmed the characteristics of AMA group by analyzing discharge abstract data of the both groups by SAS software V6.12 and $x^2$ test. Medical records of AMA patients in the year 2000 were reviewed to identify the reasons for AMA which we couldn't extract from discharge abstract DB. Result : The total number of AMA for 10 years were 9,358(2.15%) and the AMA rate has been continuously decreased for 10 years. Male, admission through emergency room, discharges admission via other hospital, patients without operation during hospitalization, discharges in hopeless or not improved condition showed higher AMA rate. The AMA rate was higher as the age of the patients was higher, and the average length of stay was longer in AMA patients than in those with discharge order. The AMA rate in psychiatry was highest(14.3%) and it was higher in surgery departments than those of medical or other sections. The AMA rate varied by attending physicians even in the same department and it was statistically significant. Patients with the principal diagnosis of "medical observation and evaluation for suspected diseases" showed the highest AMA rate(15.5%), and that of schizophrenia or psychosis was the nest. One hundred twenty-one patients(19.5%) out of 622 AMA in 2000 discharged against medical advice for transfer to order health care facilities. Among them 71 patients(58.7%) discharged with their medical care information, such as copies of medical record, medical certificates, summaries, etc. Written oath of the patients discharged AMA was filed in their medical records in 466 cases(74.9%) although some of them were incomplete. Conclusion : Characteristics of AMA discharge could be used as the basic data in developing a system to manage the patients who have risk factors to leave the hospital against medical advice. By reducing number of patients leaving the hospital against medical advice we can increase satisfaction of medical providers and consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.33-48
• /
• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to find the strategies of mental health screening in school. Based on the literature review, we discuss the importance of screening students in schools for mental health problems. Methods: Data from the 2008 Korean Mental Health Screening in Schools(2008-KMHSS) are used to estimate the outline of this screening. We administered the questionnaire for satisfaction of 2008-KMHSS for students(N=1,280), parents(N=2,672), school nurses(N=75), teachers(N=685), district personnels(N=6), and mental health center staffs(N=37). Also we interviewed a part of them by telephone and e-mail. And we reviewed the tools and methods for screening students for emotional/behavioral problems. Results: Mental health screening in schools is a very important, yet worrisome, agenda that is in its very early stages. From the 2008 Korean Mental Health Screening in Schools, 9,588 students(12.9%) needed more evaluation in the first stage. Of these, 6,910(72.1%) completed the second stage screening. In this sample, 1,975(28.6%) utilized the mental health services in school or community. 38.3% of students and 43.7% of their parents notified the 2008-KMHSS. But only 12.1% of students and 10.9% of their parents dissatisfied with the screening. 9.9% of teachers and 22.7% of school nurses dissatisfied with the screening. Among them the school nurses were mostly dissatisfied, and they complained work burden from KMHSS. Mental health center staffs complained similar issues. The Children's Problem-behavior Screening Questionnaire(CPSQ) and Adolescents' Mental-health & Problem-behavior Screening Questionnaire(AMPQ) were compatible to screen students in schools for mental health problems in first stage. Conclusion: Mental health screening in schools needs careful planning and implementation. For successful mental health screening in schools, several elements need to be considered: careful planning, collaboration, staff training, and integrative mental health programs and services in community or schools.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.169-175
• /
• 2006

Ginseng is the best known and most popular herbal medicine used worldwide. In spite of reported beneficial effects of ginseng on the CNS, there is few scientific evidences established at the cellular level. Among more than 30 ginsenosides, Rb1 and Rg1, the active ingredients of ginseng, are regarded as the main compounds responsible for many pharmaceutical actions of ginseng. Daily treatment with Rb1 or Rg1 for 3 d significantly decreased the number of bromodeoxyuridine(BrdU)(+) cells in primary neural progenitor cells(NPCs) isolated from hippocampi at embryonic day 16.5(E16.5). In contrast, treatment with Rb1 or Rg1 greatly increased the number of microtubule associated protein(MAP2) (+) cells. In addition, the transcription factors, Ngn1 and Hes1, proneural members of the basic helix-loop-helix(bHLH) family, significantly increased in Rb1 or Rg1 treated-NPCs. Based on these results, we suggest for the first time that ginsenosides Rb1 and Rg1 decrease proliferation but promote neuronal differentiation of hippocampal NPCs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.91-117
• /
• 2022

The number of depressed patients in Korea and around the world is rapidly increasing every year. However, most of the mentally ill patients are not aware that they are suffering from the disease, so adequate treatment is not being performed. If depressive symptoms are neglected, it can lead to suicide, anxiety, and other psychological problems. Therefore, early detection and treatment of depression are very important in improving mental health. To improve this problem, this study presented a deep learning-based depression tendency model using Korean social media text. After collecting data from Naver KonwledgeiN, Naver Blog, Hidoc, and Twitter, DSM-5 major depressive disorder diagnosis criteria were used to classify and annotate classes according to the number of depressive symptoms. Afterwards, TF-IDF analysis and simultaneous word analysis were performed to examine the characteristics of each class of the corpus constructed. In addition, word embedding, dictionary-based sentiment analysis, and LDA topic modeling were performed to generate a depression tendency classification model using various text features. Through this, the embedded text, sentiment score, and topic number for each document were calculated and used as text features. As a result, it was confirmed that the highest accuracy rate of 83.28% was achieved when the depression tendency was classified based on the KorBERT algorithm by combining both the emotional score and the topic of the document with the embedded text. This study establishes a classification model for Korean depression trends with improved performance using various text features, and detects potential depressive patients early among Korean online community users, enabling rapid treatment and prevention, thereby enabling the mental health of Korean society. It is significant in that it can help in promotion.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.41 no.8
• /
• pp.718-732
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate nutrients or food factors related to cognitive function of elderly having Alzheimer's disease. In this study 38 subjects who were over 65 years old have participated in dementia clinic at A medical center. After they were diagnosed to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) through blood analysis, neuropsychological test, brain image and interview by medical specialist, we examined for their general information, anthropometry, blood pressure and dietary intakes. Dietary intakes were investigated using the 24-hour recall record. Energy intake was adequate and the energy composition of carbohydrate, protein and fat was 60.8 : 16.2 : 23.0, but dietary intakes of calcium, vitamin A and folate were less than 75% of the recommended intake levels for Koreans. The multiple regression analysis adjusted with age, sex and educational level showed that cognitive function was positively related to intakes of zinc, fishes and shellfishes, beans & nuts, sugars and fats, and negatively related to intakes of plant calcium and eggs. These results indicate that intakes of specific nutrients or food groups are associated with the specific domains of cognitive function in elderly with AD.

• Anxiety and mood
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.59-67
• /
• 2014

Objective : To obtain the incidence rate of anxiety disorders among the active duty Korean military personnel, who visited the military hospitals from 2011 to 2013, this descriptive epidemiological study was performed. Methods : After acquiring the data for the anxiety disorders from Defense Medical Statistics Information System, the annual incidence rates were analyzed by forces, position status, and specific disease entities. Results : One thousand, nine hundred and thirteen (1,913) active duty male military personnel were diagnosed with any kinds of anxiety disorders in their first visit to the psychiatric outpatient department (OPD). The total OPD visit counts were 7,870 during the same period. Anxiety disorder, NOS was the most frequent disorder, followed by panic disorder. While the incidence rate for anxiety disorder, NOS decreased, panic disorder displayed increasing tendency. Stress-related disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder were positioned third and fourth, respectively, for the number of first visit and they both showed decreasing tendency in annual incidence rates. Social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder followed next. The annual incidence rates for anxiety disorders showed decreasing tendency, particularly evident in army soldiers. However, naval officers showed higher anxiety disorder incidence rate compared to those of the army and the air forces. Conclusion : Comparing to general population, panic disorder was higher while specific phobias and GAD were lower in the Korean military. It is interesting to observe higher incidence rate for anxiety disorder in naval officers and warrants further evaluation.