OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of "fake bad" and "fake good" patients with traumatic head injury in neuropsychological tests. METHODS: We measured subjective symptoms by SCL-90-R and objective symptoms by McBride obstacle-valuation measure. The patient was divided into three groups according to differences between subjective and objective symptoms. We also examined their intelligence, memory, clinical characteristics, using K-WAIS, K-MAS, MMPI. RESULTS: The group who overly expressed their subjective symptoms has its psychotic symptom exaggeratingly measured, so it will be helpful to be careful to such over-expressed symptoms in those who present a psychotic symptom in a clinical view-point. An K-WAIS measurement among those who exaggerated their subjective symptoms showed less value than the actual one, which weakens the reliability of this intelligent test. Rather, for that group, the result of K-MAS can be used with a confidence in the estimation of their severity of symptoms. CONCLUSION: MMPI and neuropsychological tests are helpful to understand characteristics between subjective symptoms and objective disabilities of patients with traumatic head injury.
Craniocerebral Trauma* ; Head* ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Memory ; MMPI* ; Neuropsychological Tests*

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess memory dysfunction in patients with mild and moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) with and without frontal lobe injury (FLI). METHODS: The subjects were 110 TBI patients, who had recovered from the acute clinical phase, and comprised 20 (18.2%) mild TBI (MTBI) patients with FLI, 16 (14.5%) MTBI patients without FLI, 51 (46.4%) moderate TBI (MOTBI) patients with FLI and 23 (20.9%) MTBI patients without FLI. All patients were administrated the Korean version of the Memory Assessment Scale (K-MAS). RESULTS: Almost all the Summary Scale scores on the K-MAS failed to show any differences between TBI patients with and without FLI, but differences did emerge by types at severities. TBI patients with FLI showed higher Global Memory ability than TBI patients without FLI if their TBI was only mild, but when their TBI was more severe, this finding was reversed, and TBI patients with FLI showed lower Verbal and Global Memory abilities than TBI patients without FLI. CONCLUSION: Different kinds of assessment tools are needed for the measurement of memory abilities in TBI patients with FLI, and that the selection of the appropriate tool depends on the severity of the TBI.
Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Frontal Lobe ; Humans ; Memory

BACKGROUND: This study assessed the mental health, in order to determine the effect of the subject's spiritual well-being on anxiety depression and quality of life in active old people, and to verify whether or not spiritual well-being is a new factor for comprehensive health in old people. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study selected 184 old people aged over 65 years. The subject's spiritual well-being was assessed by the Korean Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWS) that was composed of the Religious Well-being Scale (RWS) and Existential Well-being Scale (EWS). The quality of life was assessed using Quality of Life Scale, which was composed of the subjective feeling about life and the subject's satisfaction of their whole life. RESULTS: Among the psychosocial factors, the educational level and physical health, showed significant discriminative score in the SWS. A prior medical history was associated with a significantly low SWS score. Satisfaction with life was associated with a significantly high SWS score. These factors a showed significant discriminative EWS score rather than a RWS. Among the religion factors, the satisfaction with their religion showed significant difference in the SWS. The SWS score especially the EWS affected the anxiety and depression of the Korean Combined Anxiety and Depression Scale (CADS). The subjective feeling of life score was associated with a significantly EWS low score and the subject's satisfaction with their whole life score was associated with a significantly high EWS score. CONCLUSION: Spiritual well being has significantly effects on anxiety depression and the quality of life in active old age people, and the subject; s spiritual well-being might be a new factor for assessing health in old age.
Anxiety* ; Depression* ; Mental Health ; Psychology ; Quality of Life*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to find out cognitive function of the patients with subjective memory complaint. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From March 1st 2005 to May 31st 2009, 155 normal individuals without any medical illness who visited Yeungnam University Hospital to undergo medical checkup with neurocognitive test was enrolled, and checked by using Cognitive Assessment & Reference Diagnostic System. RESULTS: 107 of the patients had normal cognitive function, 21 patients (about 15%) were diagnosed with dementia, and 10 patients (about 7%) were diagnosed with considerable psychiatric illness, such as depression, anxiety disorder, adjustment disorder. CONCLUSION: Because the patients with subjective memory complaint can be diagnosed as any psychiatric illness as well as dementia, sensitive screening test and early psychiatric approach is needed.
Adjustment Disorders ; Anxiety Disorders ; Dementia ; Depression ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Memory

Active and prompt scale-up screening tests are essential to efficiently control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The goal of this work was to identify shortcomings in the conventional screening system (CSS) implemented in the beginning of the outbreak. To overcome these shortcomings, we then introduced a novel, independently developed system called the Yeungnam University type drive-through (YU-Thru), and distributed it nationwide in Korea. This system is similar to the drive-throughs utilized by fast food restaurants. YU-Thru system has shortened the time taken to test a single person to 2–4 minutes, by completely eliminating the time required to clean and ventilate the specimen collection room. This time requirement was a major drawback of the CSS. YU-Thru system also reduced the risk of subjects and medical staff infecting one another by using a separate and closed examination system. On average, 50 to 60 tests were conducted per day when using the CSS, while now up to 350 tests per day are conducted with the YU-Thru system. We believe that the YU-Thru system has made an important contribution to the rapid detection of COVID-19 in Daegu, South Korea. Here, we will describe the YU-Thru system in detail so that other countries experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks can take advantage of this system.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effect of methylphenidate (MPH) on height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) in drug-naive children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) over 24 months. The secondary objective was to investigate whether the age of MPH initiation and sex act as risk factors for growth retardation. Methods: A total of 82 patients with ADHD were included. Weight, height, and BMI were measured at baseline and every 6 months up to 24 months. Weight, height, and BMI data were converted to z-scores and analyzed using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA and multiple linear regression. Results: The z-score of height, weight and BMI decreased from the baseline values. The z-scores of height were at baseline 0.002; 6 months -0.100; 12 months -0.159; 18 months -0.159; 24 months -0.186. The z-scores of weight were at baseline 0.104; 6 months -0.155; 12 months -0.256; 18 months -0.278; 24 months -0.301. Here were no age and sex differences of height, weight, and BMI. Conclusion The use of MPH was associated with attenuation of weight and height gain rates in children and adolescents with ADHD.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely used as an auxiliary device to diagnosis and treat mental illness, and the scope of its use is gradually expanding. It is widely used as a tool to assist diagnosis in various fields such as radiology and ophthalmology. Meanwhile, in psychiatry, the use of AI has been limited so far due to the lack of a specific objective test for diagnosis and the reliability of medical records for sensitive records such as suicide attempts. However, AI can detect people’s behavior and facial expressions changes more sensitively and more accurately find the correlation between quantitative neurophysiological test results and behavior and emotions. Nowadays, AI is useful as an auxiliary tool in diagnosing not only pediatric and adolescent mental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but also affective disorders and psychotic disorders. AI is also actively used to treat insomnia, ASD, ADHD, cognitive dysfunction, depression, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and schizophrenia. Many psychiatrists are still cautious about the use of AI. There are concerns that AI cannot replace the doctorpatient relationship, which is the most important element of traditional psychotherapy. Nevertheless, AI can diagnose psychiatric disorders more accurately and can also be useful in improving patients’ symptoms and quality of life through AI or digital treatments. I hope that psychiatrists to contribute to the treatment of human mental illness by becoming users, supervisors, and monitors of AI.

To investigate psychopathology and executive functions of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children according to intelligence level, this study included 197 ADHD children who visited the outpatient department of neuropsychiatry of YeungNam University Medical Center, from July 2000 to June 2002. The children were divided into groups based on their intelligence levels. They were compared by the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC), Conncers' Continuous Performence Test (CPT), and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). There were significant differences in PIC, on the subscales of verbal development, socialization and autism. In the CPT, there was no significant difference. In the WCST, there were significant differences in the total number of errors, the number of perseverative errors, the number of completed categories and the number of trials needed to complete the first category. Considering these results, the intelligence level of ADHD children is related to their disabilities and behavioral symptoms. Executive functions such as abstract thinking, categorization, working memory and flexibility had significant relationship to the intelligence levels of ADHD children. Therefore, the intelligence level of children with ADHD influences the higher executive functions of regulating attention and information processing rather than attentional functions and capacity alone.
Academic Medical Centers ; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity* ; Autistic Disorder ; Automatic Data Processing ; Behavioral Symptoms ; Child* ; Executive Function* ; Humans ; Intelligence* ; Memory, Short-Term ; Neuropsychiatry ; Outpatients ; Personality Inventory ; Pliability ; Psychopathology* ; Socialization ; Thinking ; Wisconsin

This study examined 60 children with ADHD through K-ABC, ADDES-HV, ADD-H comprehensive teacher's rating scale (ACTeRS), CAP, SNAP, Academic Performance rating scale, K-PIC, CPT and WCST in order to estimate the effects of methylphenidate, and find out various factors which can influence on treatment responses and predictive factors of treatment. Boys showed better improvement in impulsiveness of behavior symptoms than girls, but girls showed better improvement in trials to completed the first category in WCST. In the aspect of age, the lower graders (age 7-9) showed improvement in sequential processing ability of intelligence but the higher graders (age 10-12) showed deterioration. In the aspect of sub-categories of ADHD, children with mixed type who had been worse in attention deficit and behavior symptoms in pretreatment state, showed significantly higher improvement than children with predominantly inattentive type in every scopes of behavior symptom check list. And in clusters of K-PIC, after treatments the group those who had have more anxiety or depression showed better improvement in omission error in CPT. In the aspect of intelligence level, children with average intelligence showed better improvement in impulsiveness and impulse control than the rests. In the aspect of executive functions, the less omission errors in CPT one made, the better improvement in attention and academic ability he showed. And the less perseverative response in WCST one had, the better improvement in hyperactivity he showed however his simultaneous processing abilities were deteriorated. With these results, this study confirms that methylphenidate is effective in behavior symptoms, academic performance, intelligence and various performance abilities of children with ADHD including attention and response control. In the cases of the children with severe ADHD symptoms, especially behavioral disinhibition and the children with mixed type of ADHD, it is considered useful to predict the results of treatments.
Anxiety ; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity* ; Child* ; Depression ; Executive Function ; Female ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Methylphenidate

OBJECTIVE: We investigated executive functions (EFs), as evaluated by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and other EF between lower grades (LG) and higher grades (HG) in elementary-school-age attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children. METHODS: We classified a sample of 112 ADHD children into 4 groups (composed of 28 each) based on age (LG vs. HG) and WCST performance [lower vs. higher performance on WCST, defined by the number of completed categories (CC)] Participants in each group were matched according to age, gender, ADHD subtype, and intelligence. We used the Wechsler intelligence Scale for Children 3rd edition to test intelligence and the Computerized Neurocognitive Function Test-IV, which included the WCST, to test EF. RESULTS: Comparisons of EFs scores in LG ADHD children showed statistically significant differences in performing digit spans backward, some verbal learning scores, including all memory scores, and Stroop test scores. However, comparisons of EF scores in HG ADHD children did not show any statistically significant differences. Correlation analyses of the CC and EF variables and stepwise multiple regression analysis in LG ADHD children showed a combination of the backward form of the Digit span test and Visual span test in lower-performance ADHD participants significantly predicted the number of CC (R2=0.273, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the design of any battery of neuropsychological tests for measuring EF in ADHD children should first consider age before interpreting developmental variations and neuropsychological test results. Researchers should consider the dynamics of relationships within EF, as measured by neuropsychological tests.
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity ; Child ; Concept Formation ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Memory ; Memory, Short-Term ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Stroop Test ; Verbal Learning ; Wisconsin