• The Korean journal of internal medicine
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.717-730
• /
• 2024

Elevated blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels induced by secondary causes are frequently observed. The identification and appropriate handling of these causes are essential for secondary dyslipidemia treatment. Major secondary causes of hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia include an unhealthy diet, diseases and metabolic conditions affecting lipid levels, and therapeutic side effects. It is imperative to correct secondary causes prior to initiating conventional lipid-lowering therapy. Guideline-based lipid therapy can then be administered based on the subsequent lipid levels.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.19 no.12
• /
• pp.398-406
• /
• 2019

This study was conducted to examine the medication non-adherence and related factors based on medication adherence model of older adults that use polypharmacy. A survey was used to collect data from 190 study participants. Among the 190 subjects, 43.2% did not adhere to their polypharmacy intentionally. The reason for medication non-adherence was listed in order of 'when they felt well on symptoms', 'when it was annoying and uncomfortable', and 'when they felt worse due to medication'. Moreover, the older adults often do not seek for medication information actively. Between adherence and non-adherence groups, while there were differences in gender, type of medication, and experience in drug-related side effects, there were no statistically significant differences in medication information contents and route. This study demonstrates that gender, type of medication, and experience in drug-related side effects should be considered to promote medication adherence. In addition, since the elderly with polypharmacy are rarely actively searching for the contents and route of drug information, the contents of drug information need to be provided by the route preferred by the elderly in order to assist in their decision-making process for polypharmacy.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.214-222
• /
• 2014

Purpose: This study was to identify factors predicting the occurrence of depression among patients with hepatitis C treated with Peg-interferon. Methods: The subjects were 134 patients treated with Peg-interferon after the diagnosis with hepatitis C at the D University Hospital and 3 hospitals located in Busan, South Korea. The predictors of depression were identified by measuring the general characteristics of the subjects and their disease-related characteristics, social support, sleep disorders, and degree of side effects by interferon. The data were analyzed with a t-test, ANOVA, and logistic regression using the SPSS/WIN 18.0 program. Results: Sixty-six point four percent of the subjects suffered from mild to more severe depression. Fatigue, hair loss, itching, and sleep disorders turned out to be significant predictors. In addition, the explanatory power of these variables for the occurrence of depression was 70%. Conclusion: Sleep disorders and drug side effects were determined to have significant influence on the development of depression in hepatitis C patients treated with Peg-interferon. Therefore, the development of nursing intervention programs aimed to prevent depression by effectively managing sleep disorders and side effects is mandated in future to help the given population.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.221-227
• /
• 2017

Background: As personalized healthcare industry has attracted much attention, big data analysis of healthcare data is essential. Lots of healthcare data such as product labeling, biomedical literature and social media data are unstructured, extracting meaningful information from the unstructured text data are becoming important. In particular, text mining for adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reports is able to provide signal information to predict and detect adverse drug reactions. There has been no study on text analysis of expert opinion on Korea Adverse Event Reporting System (KAERS) databases in Korea. Methods: Expert opinion text of KAERS database provided by Korea Institute of Drug Safety & Risk Management (KIDS-KD) are analyzed. To understand the whole text, word frequency analysis are performed, and to look for important keywords from the text TF-IDF weight analysis are performed. Also, related keywords with the important keywords are presented by calculating correlation coefficient. Results: Among total 90,522 reports, 120 insulin ADR report and 858 tramadol ADR report were analyzed. The ADRs such as dizziness, headache, vomiting, dyspepsia, and shock were ranked in order in the insulin data, while the ADR symptoms such as vomiting, 어지러움, dizziness, dyspepsia and constipation were ranked in order in the tramadol data as the most frequently used keywords. Conclusion: Using text mining of the expert opinion in KIDS-KD, frequently mentioned ADRs and medications are easily recovered. Text mining in ADRs research is able to play an important role in detecting signal information and prediction of ADRs.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.45-60
• /
• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to understand the status of reporting and characteristics of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) induced by herbal drugs and to make a suggestion for the domestic pharmacovigilance system on herbal medicine. Methods: We carried out a hospital-based observational study at Dongguk University Ilsan Oriental Hospital from April 2012 to December 2014. We reviewed all the herbal-drug-associated ADRs reports registered to the spontaneous ADR reporting system in electronic medical records of the hospital in the period. Results: We found out 101 reports including 163 herbal-drug-associated ADRs from 97 patients. Females (69.3%) outnumbered males and the most frequent age group was the 50s (44, 27.0%). No serious adverse event was observed. The most commonly reported ADR was gastro-intestinal system disorders (68, 41.5%) followed by skin-related disorders (42, 25.8%). Diarrhea (29, 17.8%) was the most frequently referred clinical manifestation. Most ADRs were induced by internal medicines (160, 98.2%) including manufactured (36, 22.1%) and self-prepared decoction (160, 76.1%). The pairs of Igi-hwan-diarrhea, gamiboa-tang-vomiting, and Magnoliae Flos-gastro-intestinal-system-related ADRs were observed twice each and the others appeared only once. Conclusions: We propose Korean government to take an initiative in national pharmacovigilance system for herbal medicine. To perform the surveillance on herbal drugs, the Association of Korean Medicine (AKOM) should set up a nationwide network by designating centers connecting the Korean medical hospitals, local Korean medicine clinics, and the public health centers. The government and AKOM should also educate and encourage them to understand the pharmacovigilance system and report the ADRs actively.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.139-144
• /
• 2014

Background: To manage intractable cancer pain, an alternative to systemic analgesics is neuraxial analgesia. In long-term treatment, intrathecal administration could provide a more satisfactory pain relief with lower doses of analgesics and fewer side-effects than that of epidural administration. However, implantable drug delivery systems using intrathecal pumps in Korea are very expensive. Considering cost-effectiveness, we performed epidural analgesia as an alternative to intrathecal analgesia. Methods: We retrospectively investigated the efficacy, side effects, and complications of epidural morphine and local anesthetic administration through epidural catheters connected to a subcutaneous injection port in 29 Korean terminal cancer patients. Patient demographic data, the duration of epidural administration, preoperative numerical pain rating scales (NRS), side effects and complications related to the epidural catheterization and the drugs, and the numerical pain rating scales on the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 30th postoperative days were determined from the medical records. Results: The average score for the numerical pain rating scales for the 29 patients decreased from $7{\pm}1.0$ at baseline to $3.6{\pm}1.4$ on postoperative day 1 (P < 0.001). A similar decrease in pain intensity was maintained for 30 days (P < 0.001). Nausea and vomiting were the most frequently reported side effects of the epidural analgesia and two patients (6.9%) experienced paresthesia. Conclusions: Epidural morphine and local anesthetic infusion with a subcutaneous pump seems to have an acceptable risk-benefit ratio and allows a high degree of autonomy to patients with cancer pain.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.55-69
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study is to reduce the side effect of functional health foods. The research is done by in-depth interview method. The nineteen officials who worked in local administration or KFDA(Korea Food & Drug Administration) were interviewed. The questions were asked regarding the current status of consumer reports related to functional health foods, the problems which officials perceived, and the regulations required to reduce the problems. The findings are as follows: 1) the consumers report the side effect of functional health foods to nongovernmental organization. 2) officials feel that the problems are the difficulty in finding the cause of the side effect, unjust sale tactics, deceptive and small-sized manufacturers. and the distorted consumer conception on functional health foods. 3) officials think that improvement on the regulations are required to reduce the problems caused by the side effects. It includes the indication of the ingredient's origin and warnings considering physical conditions, close cowork between administration and nongovernmental organization. introduction of sales license for functional health foods and the increase of the opportunity for consumers to get information and education on functional health foods.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.276-285
• /
• 2024

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a systemic disorder of energy metabolism characterized by a sustained elevation of blood glucose in conjunction with impaired insulin action in multiple peripheral tissues (i.e., insulin resistance). Although extensive research has been conducted to identify therapeutic targets for the treatment of DM, its global prevalence and associated mortailty rates are still increasing, possibly because of challenges related to long-term adherence, limited efficacy, and undesirable side effects of currently available medications, implying an urgent need to develop effective and safe pharmacotherapies for DM. Phytochemicals have recently drawn attention as novel pharmacotherapies for DM based on their clinical relevance, therapeutic efficacy, and safety. Ginsenosides, pharmacologically active ingredients primarily found in ginseng, have long been used as adjuvants to traditional medications in Asian countries and have been reported to exert promising therapeutic efficacy in various metabolic diseases, including hyperglycemia and diabetes. This review summarizes the current pharmacological effects of ginsenosides and their mechanistic insights for the treatment of insulin resistance and DM, providing comprehensive perspectives for the development of novel strategies to treat DM and related metabolic complications.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.77-85
• /
• 2023

Objectives This study is designed to evaluate the safety of palmul-tang soft extract in healthy male volunteers. Methods Twelve healthy male volunteers were recruited. And this study was conducted in a single center. As a result of the laboratory test, the safety was evaluated by collecting vital signs of volunteers. Twelve subjects were assigned by serial number according to the registration order. For safety evaluation, blood samples were collected and vital signs were checked four times throughout the test period, including screening, pre-administration, post-administration (after 48 hours) and post-administration (after 7 days). The difference in variables was summarized as the mean±standard deviation. The normality was performed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk test. If normality is satisfied, a paired t-test is applied. Otherwise, the Wilcoxon sign rank test, which is a nonparametric method, is applied. The significance was p<0.05. The incidence of all side effects is expressed as a percentage. Results In the case of red blood cell, hemoglobin, and hematocrit values, the result of normality test of variables for the difference value before and after administration is significant level p<0.05. However, all laboratory test values before and after administration did not deviate from the normal range. Also the deviations in the normal range could not be seen as significance related to this clinical trial. And no side effects related to clinical trial drugs were observed. Conclusions The soft extract of palmul-tang was considered safe for healthy male volunteers.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.41-49
• /
• 2010

Statins are competitive inhibitors of hydroxy-3-methyl glutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase and used most frequently to reduce plasma cholesterol levels and to decrease cardiovascular events. However, statins also have been reported to have undesirable side effects such as myotoxicity and hepatotoxicity associated with their intrinsic efficacy mechanisms. Clinical studies recurrently reported that statin therapy elevated the level of liver enzymes such as ALT and AST in patients suggesting possible liver toxicity due to statins. This observation has been drawn great attention since statins are the most prescribed drugs and statin-therapy was extended to a larger number of high-risk patients. Here we employed rat primary hepatocytes and microarray technique to understand underlying mechanism responsible for statin-induced liver toxicity on cell level. We isolated genes whose expressions were commonly modulated by statin treatments and examined their biological functions. It is of interest that those genes have function related to response to stress in particular immunity and defense in cells. Our study provided the basic information on cellular mechanism of statin-induced cytotoxicity and may serve for finding indicator genes of statin -induced toxicity in rat primary hepatocytes.