• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2003

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of stress and personality on sleep patterns, and further, to identify potential correlations between stress and personality characteristics. Methods: A total of 174 healthy college students were subjects for this study. Participants filled out the Daily Stress Inventory before sleep and the Modified Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index after sleep on three consecutive days. They also filled out the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16-PF), BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) and STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). Results: Minor stresses highly correlated with subjective sleep quality and symptoms of non-restorative sleep. However, total sleep time, sleep latency, awakening frequency, and frequency of dreams were not explained by stress scores. The O (guilty feeling), C (low ego strength) and Q4 (high anxiety) factors of the 16-PF also highly correlated with symptoms of non-restorative sleep and significantly affected sleep patterns. BDI and STAI scores also correlated with the above personality factors and minor stresses. Conclusion: This study showed that minor stresses impaired the restorative effects of sleep. Personality characteristics such as low ego strength, high levels of anxiety, and feelings of guilt were vulnerable to minor stresses. Minor stress, various personality characteristics, different coping patterns, and emotional response are highly correlated with each other and affect sleep patterns.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.58-74
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• 2002

This paper constitutes a descriptive investigation and used a structured questionnaire to investigate nurses' and doctors' recognition of cancer patients. The subjects were extracted from the medical personnel working at the internal medicine, the surgery ward, the obstetrics and gynecology department, the pediatrics department, the cancer ward, and the emergency room of five general hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The research lasted from August, 2001 to September 2001. Total 137 nurses and 65 doctors were included and made out the questionnaires directly distributed by the investigator. The study tool was also developed by the investigator and consisted of such items as the demographic and social characteristics, the medical personnel's recognition degree of cancer and cancer patients, their recognition of the management of cancer patients, and their participation in a hospice. The results were analyzed using the SPSS Window program in terms of technological statistics, ranks, t-test, and ANOVA. The reliability was represented in Cronbach' α=.75. The nurses' and doctors' recognition degree of cancer and cancer patients had an overall average of 3.86 at the 5 point-scale. The items that received an average of 4.0 or more included 'Medical personnel should explain about the cancer cure plans to the cancer patient and his or her family', 'A patient whose case has been diagnosed as a terminal cancer should be notified of it, 'If I were a cancer patient, I would want to get informed of it,' and 'Cancer shall be conquered whenever it is'. In the meantime, the items that received an average of 3.0 or less was 'My relationship with the cancer patient's family has gotten worse since I announced his or her impending death.' And according to the general characteristics and the difference test, the recognition degree of cancer and cancer patient was high among the subgroups of nurses, females, married persons, who were in their 30s, who had a family member that was a cancer patient, and who received a hospice education. The biggest number of the nurses and doctors saw 'a gradual approach over several days'(68.8%) as a method to tell a cancer patient about his or her cancer diagnosis or impending death. Those who usually tell tragic news were the physician in charge(62.8%), the family members or relatives(32.1%) and the clergymen(3.8%) in the order. The greatest number of them recommended a cancer patient's home as the place where he or she should face death because they thought 'it would stabilize his or her mentality'(91.9%) while a number of them recommended the hospital because they 'should give the psychological satisfaction to the patient'(40%) or 'should try their best until the last moment of the patient's death'(30%). A majority of the medical personnel regarded 'smoking or drinking' and 'diet' as the causes of cancer. The biggest symptom of a cancer patient was 'pain' and the pain management of a cancer patient was mostly impeded by the 'excessive fear of drug addiction, tolerance to drugs and side effects of drugs' by medical personnel, the patient, and his or her family. The most frequently adopted treatment plan of a terminal cancer patient was 'to do whatever the patient or his or her family wants' to resort to a hospice' and 'to continue active treatment efforts' in the order. The biggest reasons why a terminal cancer patient went to see a doctor were 'pain alleviation' 'control of symptoms other than pain(intravenous supply)' and 'incapability of the patient's family' in the order. Terminal cancer patients placed their major concern in 'spiritual(religious) matter' 'emotional matters' their family' 'existence' and 'physical matters' in the order. 113(58.5%) of the whole medical personnel answered they 'would recommend' an alternative treatment to a terminal cancer patient mostly because they assumed it would 'stabilize the patient's mentality.' Meanwhile, 80(41.5%) of them chose 'not to recommend it mostly due to the unverified effects and high cost of it(78.7%). A majority of them, I. e. 190(94.1%) subjects said they 'would recommend' a hospice to a terminal cancer patient mostly because they thought it would help the patient to 'mentally prepare'(66.6%) Only 17.3% of them, however, had received a hospice education, most of which was done through the hospital duty education(41.4%) and volunteer training(34.5%). The follows are results of this study: 1. The nurses and the doctors turned out to be still passive and experience confusion in dealing with a cancer patient despite their great sense of responsibility for him or her. 2.Nurses and Doctors realize the need of a hospice, but an extremely small number of them participate in a hospice education or performance. Thus, a whole recognition of a hospice should be changed, for which purpose a hospice education for nurses and doctors should be provided. 3.Terminal cancer patients preferred their home to a hospital as the place to face their impending death because they felt it would bring 'mental stability.' And most of nurses and doctors think it would be unnecessary for them to be hospitalized just for control of their symptoms. Accordingly a terminal cancer patient can be cared at home, and a home hospice care needs to be activated.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.5-12
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• 2004

I. Introduction : The constipation is one of the common gastrointestinal symptoms seen in the clinical practice. When people come to the clinic complaining of the constipation, it is generally one of the cases of infrequent, painful or difficult evacuation as well as the hardened feces and unsatisfactory evacuation sense. Since the constipation is heavily influenced by dietary habit as well as the social and medical environment, the diagnostic radiology is useful to establish the objective and standardized definition in consideration of those various factors before diagnosis and treatment of the constipation patient. This paper describes the study of such diagnosis. II. Main Subject : Testing of CTT (colon transit time) is key study of the colon performance. CTT is very helpful in classifying the pathologic physiological types and defining the treatment plan for the chronic constipation. The study methods include using the radipaque marker, multiple marker technique and scintigraphic measurement. The defecography is the functional radiologic examination a that provides not only the anatomical information of anorectal but also performance of the pelvic floor and rectal change during evacuation. Study of dynamic movement of the anorectal during evacuation is helpful for diagnosis and treatment planning as well as follow-up testing for the constipation patient. One of the issues essential for the case history is the thorough observation of whether the patient shows the psychic psychological symptoms such as the behavior disorder or emotional disturbance. In that case, the decision must be made whether or which type of medication is needed for such psychiatric problem. III. Conclusion : The main causes of the constipation are insufficient intake of fiber or liquid. The key objective of such tests is to check etiology of the constipation. In general, the radiological examination does not provde the colon or anorectal performance information. It is envisaged that this study will provide the information to decide the testing and treatment plans and predict the prognosis of the patient by classifying the pathologic physiological types.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.221-231
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the need for child hospice care programs in families of children with cancer. Methods: The survey of 104 families who were taking care of children with cancer was conducted. This survey was conducted from February 2004 to July 2004 at two general hospitals in Seoul. The data were collected through a self-reporting questionnaire of 22 items. The items were classified into five areas by factor analysis to identify the construct validity. The reliability of the tool was established by Cronbach's alpha as .94 and the data collected were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Results: 1) The degree of need for hospice care of the subjects showed a high average of 3.40 (${\pm}3.8$). The need for 'emotional care of children' showed the highest mean (M=3.55), 'management of terminal physical symptoms'(M=3.49), 'control of secondary physical problems' (M=3.41), 'acceptance of the family's difficulty' (M=3.20), 'spiritual care for preparing for death'(M=3.17), respectively. 2) With respect to the demographic characteristics of the subjects, there were statistically significant differences in hospice care needs, according to the child's mother's age (F==4.980, P=.009), whether or not there were cancer patients among their siblings or relatives (t=2.423, P=.017). Conclusion: The family of children with cancer have a heavy burden of ambivalence, especially in relieving the anxiety and fear of their children, communicating about death, and managing physical symptoms. Child hospice care must be provided considering the needs of families of children with cancer. Thus popular needs as well as hospice nurses' higher concern and support for hospice care of children require further education and program development to meet the current demands.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.79-89
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• 2004

This study carried a comparative analysis of quality of living perceived by cancer and hospiece patients who received radiotheraphy, and influential factors in order to provide basic data for nursing goals and establishment of strategy. The subjects of the study were 50 cancer patients who were more than twenty years old and was receiving radiotheraphy in therapeutic radiology department of C university hospital, and fourteen hospiece patients who were in J hospital in Gwangju. They were conveniently sampled according to the selection standard, and researchers personally interviewed them using questionnaire and patient scripts to obtain necessary data. The results were presented as follows: 1. When cancer and hospiece patients were examined demographically, the number of 60 year-old patients were the most. The subjects whose marriage period was more than thirty-one years were the most. In medical expense, more than $70.0\%$ of the patients bore their expenses themselves. 2. When disease-related characteristics of the cancer and pospiece patients were exmained, more than $75\%$ of the patients had experience of being in hospital, and more than $60.0\%$ experienced operation. However, for prevalence period, $57.5\%$ of the cancer patients had less than six months, and $64.3\%$ of the hospiece patients had more than two years. 3. For physical symptoms of cancer patients, $77.5\%$ had fatigue, $60.0\%$ had loss of appetite, and $52.5\%$ had loss of weight while for the hospiece patients, $100\%$ had loss of weight, and $92.9\%$ had fatigue and loss of appetite. For the cancer patients, $0.0\%$ had swelling, and $7.5\%$ had bleeding, For the hospiece patients, $7.1\%$ had change in skin, and $14.3\%$ had diarrhea. 4. Mean score of the cancer subjects were as follows: family support, social support, emotional and spiritual support, physical symptoms, and periods were 3.87, 2.88, 3.10, 2.80, and 2.94 respectively. Those of the hospiece patients were 3.80, 1.96, 1.58, 2.64 and 3.24 respectively. 5. Mean score of family support of both patients were almost identical, but in character, a considerable difference was found: 3.10 and 1.58. In qualify of living, the mean score of hospiece patients was slightly lower.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2001

Introduction: Narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy, is known to be closely associated with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DQB1*0602. Several studies have suggested that HLA-DQB1*0602 is strongly linked with narcolepsy-cataplexy. However, no studies have yet been made on whether HLA DQB1*0602 is associated with Korean patients with narcolepsy. This study was designed to investigate the frequency of HLA-DQB1*0602 of Korean patients with narcolepsy. Methods: Twenty patients were selected (mean age: $28.2{\pm}3.0$, 11 men and 9 women). The patients were confirmed to have narcolepsy by the overnight polysomnography and multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) in addition to their clinical history and symptoms at St. Vincent's Hospital and Korea University Hospital Sleep Disorders Clinic. Any subjects co-morbid with other hypersomnic sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or periodic limb movements during sleep were excluded. Clinical data was collected through a semi-structured interview for narcoleptic patients. All patients and 21 control did HLA typing for the presence of DQB1*0602. Results Obtained were as Follows: 1) Mean sleep latency was 2.4 (${\pm}2.0$ minutes) and mean frequency of sleep-onset REM period was 3.0 (${\pm}1.6$) by MSLT. 2) Characteristic symptoms of narcolepsy investigated were as follows: excessive daytime sleepiness (100%), cataplexy (100%), sleep paralysis (60%), hypnagogic hallucination (70%) and disrupted nocturnal sleep (75%). 3) Strong emotional expression such as laughing (80%) and joking (70%) triggered cataplexy which affects the knee and leg region (80%) and jaw region (30%). 4) HLA-DR2 was found in 90% of patients and 35% in controls. The frequency of HLA-DQB1*0602 in patients and controls was 90%, and 24%, respectively. Conclusions: These results, which exhibit high HLA-DQB1*0602 expression in Korean patients with narcolepsy, suggest that HLADQB1*0602 could be a strong genetic marker in narcolepsy.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.8-19
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• 2020

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine whether the MMPI-2-RF serves as a useful tool to differentiate between the subtypes of high risk of suicide among psychiatric outpatients. Methods : Patients were recruited from the department of psychiatry of university hospital. Participants were diagnosed using DSM-5 criteria by board certified psychiatrists. Their medical records were reviewed retrospectively. And participants were put into 4 groups (Suicide ideation, Suicide attempt, Non-suicidal self-injury, and general psychiatric diagnosis as a control group). For statistical comparison, the MANCOVA with gender as a covariate was used. Results : The results indicated that as previous research with non-clinical sample suggested, psychiatric outpatients with high suicide risk also have significantly higher Emotional/Internalizing Dysfunction, Helplessness/Hopelessness, Suicidal/Death Ideation, Demoralization, Cognitive complaints, Cynicism, Dysfunctional negative thoughts than general psychiatric patients group. But group differences within the high suicide risk patients have not been observed. However, suicide attempt group and NSSI group has higher Behavioral/Externalizing Dysfunction, RC4, AGG than general psychiatric patients group. But there was no difference between suicidal idea group and general psychiatric patients group. Conclusions : There was no group difference observed between all three subtypes, which mean the MMPI2-RF may not be the useful diagnostic tool to navigate high suicide risk subtypes. Even though there was no difference observed in the suicide ideation group, suicide attempt group and NSSI group have higher aggression and externalization. So those indexes could serve as a useful marker to investigate riskiness of suicide related symptoms.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2016

This paper is shown the new method using LED Light, which the light environment is upgraded the natural LED light in the area of Disaster Prevention and Safety Management (PDSD), which the events of deaths is reduced on the Suicide, the Infectious diseases, the safety accidents, the Traffic Accident, the crime, the fire, the Nature Disaster, and which the health and the environment and the safety is implemented using the value of the color LED Light. Research findings include,during 3 weeks in the November 2016, in the ten residents (average living 28.7 years, age 67.5 years) with depressive symptoms in the northern part of Seoul, according to the request of the user, the PDSD natural light LED lighting was installed in the home bedroom or the living room, expectations for the ability to restore physical and mental stability were high (88%), in the same way, after 1 week and 3 weeks, the physical and mental changes were compared and the results,84% in the first week and 90% in the third week and thereafter, the effect of relieving depression was high. We conclude that patients with depression have a good sleep, an uneasy feeling, a sense of security, a good night's sleep, and a good feeling. The PDSD LED Light is expected to contribute in the various areas, which reduced the suicides, which give increased immunity from infectious diseases, which give a crash to reduce accidents caused by negligence, which improve the safe operation of heavy vehicles in which a traffics accident incidence installed on the highest point, which improve the safety function on the 'safety way home' for the safety of the community, which due to fire gives alleviate the emotional anxiety of firefighters, which improve the environment for long-term control room working during decision making caused by natural disasters.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2014

Objectives : Breast cancer has been the most prevalent female cancer in South Korea since 2001. Early detection of this disease is the most effective strategy for reducing mortality. The objective of this study was to identify factors which could predict advanced stage at diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods : Participants who were initially diagnosed with breast cancer and referred to the Stress Clinic of the Breast Cancer Center at Kyungpook National University Hospital were included. Through a semi-structured interview, the authors investigated psychosocial variables such as the extent of marital and family functioning and emotional-economic family burden as well as sociodemographic and health behavior-, health characteristic- and cancer-related variables. Results : Data were collected from 219 participants. One hundred and twenty(54.8%) subjects were diagnosed with advanced-stage breast cancer. Variables that were significantly different between the advanced-stage and early-stage groups included : monthly breast self examination(p<0.000), annual mammographic screening(p<0.000), mode of tumor detection(p<0.000), nature of the first symptoms(p<0.000), time to treatment after diagnosis(p<0.000), overloaded economic and family burden(p=0.018), marital functioning(p<0.000) and family functioning(p<0.00). Logistic regression analysis indicated that irregular annual mammography screening(OR=7.431 ; 95% CI 2.407-22.944) or a lack of screening(OR=25.299 ; 95% CI 7.855-81.482) and a dysfunctional marital relationship(OR=4.772 ; 95% CI 2.244-10.145) were significantly associated with advanced stage at diagnosis of breast cancer. Conclusions : We reconfirmed screening behavior to be a risk factor for delayed diagnosis of breast cancer. Our findings also emphasized the importance of psychosocial factors such as marital functioning in early detection of breast cancer. Psychiatric consultation in the area of martial functioning could be beneficial for increasing early detection in breast cancer.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.177-187
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• 2017

Purpose: From August 2017, hospice-palliative care (HPC) will be provided to patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and liver cirrhosis in Korea. To contribute to building a non-cancer (NC) hospice-palliative care model, NC specialists were interviewed regarding the goals, details, and provision methods of the model. Methods: Four physicians specializing in HPC of cancer patients formulated a semi-structured interview with questions extracted from literature review of 85 articles on NC HPC. Eleven NC disease specialists were interviewed, and their answers were analyzed according to the qualitative content analysis process. Results: The interviewees said as follows: It is difficult to define end-stage NC patients. HPC for cancer patients and that for NC patients share similar goals and content. However, emphasis should be placed on alleviating other physical symptoms and emotional care rather than pain control. Timing of the care provision should be when patients are diagnosed as "end stage". Special issues should be considered for each NC disease (e.g., use of anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS patients, oxygen supply for COPD patients suffering from dyspnea, liver transplantation for patients with liver cirrhosis) and education should be provided to healthcare professionals. NC patients tend to negatively perceive HPC, and the government's financial assistance is insufficient. Conclusion: It is necessary to define end-stage NC patients through in-depth discussion to minimize issues that will likely accompany the expansion of care recipients. This requires cooperation between medical staff caring for NC patients and HPC givers for cancer patients.