OBJECTIVES: We investigated impulsivity and sensation seeking of pathological gambling, comparing with alcoholism and normal group. METHODS: 36 pathological gamblers, who were diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria, were compared with 31 alcoholism group and 26 healthy normal group with Barratt impulsivity scale and Zuckerman sensation seeking scale. RESULTS: 1) Pathological gamblers appeared to have much more impulsivity than alcoholism group or normal group. In respect to sensation seeking, no significant differences were founded among three groups. 2) Pathological gamblers tend to have more non-planning impulsivity, cognitive impulsivity, and motor impulsivity than alcoholic group. Comparing with normal group, pathological gamblers tend to have more non-planning impulsivity and motor impulsivity, but not in cognitive impulsivity. 3) There were no differences in three sub-scales including of thrill seeking, experience seeking and disinhibition out of four sub-scales of sensation seeking scale, among three groups. However, Boredom susceptibility was higher in pathological gamblers than alcoholics and normal group. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that personality of pathological gambler is most impulsive and boredom susceptible, which indicates that pathological gamblers is more serious pathological clinical disorder than alcoholism.
Alcoholics ; Alcoholism* ; Boredom ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Gambling* ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior* ; Sensation

PURPOSE: This study was designed to describe the experiences of dementia prevention program for older adults in nursing homes. METHODS: Four focus group interviews (FGI) after the program were conducted with 35 participants. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. The transcribed data were analyzed by Colaizzi's phenomenological method. RESULTS: Four themes emerged as a result of analysis. Participants without dementia reported “I don't have dementia yet.” This statement probably reflects ignoring potential dementia. Motivation for participating the dementia prevention program were to reduce boredom, to enjoy exercising and communicating with others, and to follow group activities. Participants reported the positive effects of the program; (a) benefits from the repeating learned activities; (b) improvements of memory and emotional stability. A few participants reported their inability to follow the program due to physical and environmental limits. However, other participants reported their efforts to overcome physical limits and perform the activities regardless their limits. People who performed the activities with physical limits reported that their self-satisfaction was increased. CONCLUSION: Results of this study showed that participants without dementia were able to actively participate in dementia prevention programs and showed memory, emotional and behavioral improvements. Therefore, these findings can be used for developing customized dementia prevention programs in nursing homes.
Adult* ; Aged ; Boredom ; Dementia* ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Memory ; Methods ; Motivation ; Nursing Homes* ; Nursing* ; Qualitative Research

BACKGROUND: Currently in Korea, the blood supply for transfusion is almost covered by whole blood donation. But, because the number of participants of the plasmapheresis is limited, the supply of plasma for the production of plasma fractionations depends on a considerable amount of plasma imported. For this reason, a facilitation of plasmapheresis is in an urgent need via stable donors' participation. This survey research was conducted to improve services for donors based on their sound understandings on plasmapheresis. METHOD: The subjects were 1,132 donors who participated plasmapheresis between August and September of 1996 and agreed on the research purposes. RESULTS: Students and employees under 30 years old composed the major part of those who participated in plasmapheresis in major metropolitan areas including Seoul. The gender distribution was about 6:4. Most of the donors had a voluntary motivation to help others, but 47% of them did not know that blood donation is not related to HIV infection. Subjects responded that the environment for plasmapheresis was satisfacftory (92%). Factors that were related to unsatisfactory experience included boredom while pheresis (30%), scared feeling for the pain at the site of injection (28%), and uncomfortable feeling of blood flow (18%). 76% of the donors responded that they will participate in the plasmapheresis again, and the correlation between the level of satisfaction and intention of repeated participation was significant (p<0.01). Reasons for the refusal of repeated participation included the length of pheresis time (52%) and the pain at the site of injection (19%). 82% of the subjects thought the nurses were kind and 18% thought they were moderately kind. While 62% of the subjects who thought nurses were kind expressed their intention to participate in apheresis, while 59% of the subjects who thought the kindness was moderate said that they will not participate in apheresis. The correlation between the kindness of nurses and the level of understandig about plasmapheresis, and the level of uncomfortableness, and intention for repetitive participation were all significant (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Based on our survey we could concluded that the followings are of great importance for the facilitation of plasmapheresis: continual promotion for the lack of relationship between blood donation and HIV infection, kindly explanation of palsmapheresis by nurses, nurses' skillful operation of plasmapheresis, improvement of audio-visual environment in order not to make donors boring during aphresis.
Adult ; Blood Component Removal ; Blood Donors ; Boredom ; Disulfiram ; HIV Infections ; Humans ; Intention ; Korea ; Motivation ; Plasma ; Plasmapheresis* ; Seoul ; Tissue Donors* ; Volunteers*

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to examine the symptom characteristics of depression in the elderly who live alone. METHODS: This study is a community-based, cross-sectional study that included 915 elderly subjects aged 65 years and over without cognitive impairment. The Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form (SGDS-K) was used for the evaluation of depressive symptoms. Participants were classified into three groups ; 1) living with their spouse and other family members, 2) living without their spouse (separated, divorced, or widowed) but with other family members, 3) living alone. The odds ratios of each item of SGDS-K were evaluated by logistic regression using the first group as the reference group. Adjustments were done for age, sex, education years, insurance, presence of illness, drinking, smoking and exercise. RESULTS: The living-alone elderly were at increased risk of reporting 'hopelessness' (AOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.03-2.18, p=0.033) and 'boredom' (AOR 1.57, 95% CI 1.08-2.23, p=0.018). The depressive symptoms of the elderly who were living with family members other than spouse were not significantly different from those of the reference group. CONCLUSION: Living alone is related to depression in the elderly, especially to the symptoms of hopelessness and boredom.
Aged ; Boredom ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder ; Divorce ; Drinking ; Humans ; Insurance ; Logistic Models ; Odds Ratio ; Residence Characteristics ; Sex Characteristics ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Spouses ; Suicide

OBJECTIVETo compare the differences between homosexual and heterosexual men in the pattern of induced aversive emotion regulation.

METHODSTen healthy homosexual men and 10 heterosexual men were investigated by functional magnetic resonance imaging under three types of visual sexual stimuli designed by Block. SPM2 software was used for data analysis.

RESULTSSame levels of negative emotions of homosexual men and heterosexual were induced by female-female and male-male erotic stimuli respectively. Activations of same brain regions including prefrontal gyrus, temporal gyrus, occipital gyrus and cerebellum were observed in two groups. However, there were significant differences in the side of hippocampus and precuneus. Activations of right cingulate cortex were observed in homosexual men, but not in heterosexual men.

CONCLUSIONThere are some differences in the patterns of aversive emotion regulation between homosexual and heterosexual men.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Boredom ; Emotions ; physiology ; Gyrus Cinguli ; physiology ; Heterosexuality ; psychology ; Homosexuality, Male ; psychology ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; methods ; Male ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to design services for improving the quality of care of hospitalized children with acute diseases.METHODS: The service design process had four phases: discovery, definition, development, and delivery. The participants were 23 mothers of hospitalized children with an acute disease, and seven nurses and three doctors working at a pediatric hospital. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and observations. The data were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistics.RESULTS: The participants reported needs for explanations about the treatment, skillful nursing, and environmental improvements. The concept of the services was familiarity and enjoyment, aimed at solving the problems of unfamiliarity and boredom. A six-guideline was presented for improving the quality of care of hospitalized children with acute diseases: improvement of awareness, development of educational materials, improvement of skills, environmental improvements, play activities, and evaluations of user satisfaction.CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that nursing services should deliver familiarity and enjoyment to hospitalized children and their families. The findings of this study emphasize that the service design methodology can be used to improve the quality of care of hospitalized children with acute diseases.
Acute Disease ; Boredom ; Child ; Child, Hospitalized ; Hospitals, Pediatric ; Humans ; Mothers ; Nursing ; Nursing Service, Hospital ; Nursing Services ; Quality of Health Care ; Recognition (Psychology)