OBJECTIVE: The basic concepts and methods applied in the techniques of Taoistic meditation, Yang- Sheng-Sul are analyzed and interpreted from the medico-psychological viewpoint with special reference to the descriptions on Yang-Sheng in the Korean classics of traditional medicine, Dong-Ui-Bo-Gam. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: 'Dong-Ui-Bo-Gam' has adopted mainly the Taoistic concepts of body as microcosm and concepts of three basic vital forces of Ching, Chi, Shen, three fields of Tan, the incorruptible essence and its circulating routes in the body. The Taoistic breathing techniques Bok-Ki and physical exercises Do-In are based upon the belief on the metaphysical views of body and life. The concepts of three vital forces Ching, Chi, Shen the nurturing of which is regarded as the ultimate goal of Taoistic Yang-Sheng are taken into consideration. These concepts can be comparable to the concept of 'psychoid function' in terms of Jung, the intermediator between soma and psyche. The concepts of Ch(n Shim(Heaven's Heart), Tao, Tan(the corruptible body), Tae-Shik(the fetal breath) represent the symbols of Self in terms of analytical psychology of Jung. Yang-Sheng-Sul can be regarded, in comparison with the Western alchemy, as an alchemical opus performed within the field of body by means of both imagination and physical exercises to achieve the state of immortality which is reflecting partly the symbolic manifestations of the self actualization in Jungian term. Authors also reviewed the results of experimental researches of Taoistic meditation on its physiologic effects and found the necessity for a more elaborated researches and investigations in this concern.
Alchemy ; Carisoprodol ; Exercise ; Imagination ; Medicine, Korean Traditional* ; Medicine, Traditional ; Meditation* ; Psychology ; Respiration ; Triacetoneamine-N-Oxyl ; Troleandomycin

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical and polysomnographic characteristics of Korean patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), especially in relation to differences due to age and gender. METHODS: All subjects were consecutive patients who were proven to have OSAS with nocturnal polysomnography. They were interviewed with a structured interview format including sociodemographic information, past medical history, medication, and sleep-related history. Simultaneously, they were also given Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) to answer in order to check subjective sleep quality and subjective sleepiness. RESULTS: Mean age of the 308 subjects was 49.5+/-13.3 years, with 77.6% of the subjects being males and 22.4% of the subjects being females. The aging effects on the sleep architecture in Korean OSAS corresponded with normal aging, but with the effect of OSAS itself superimposed, the extent of aging effects was more marked than that of normal aging. The severity of Korean patients of OSAS was not correlated with age. When divided into age subgroups, significant correlation was found between RDI and BMI in patients of each subgroup of those in the 4th to 7th decades. The oldest subgroup (>70 years) described their subjective sleep quality as poorer than any other age subgroups, despite of less subjective drowsiness. The severity of OSAS and the change of sleep architecture of male subjects turned out to be severer than those of female ones. The female/male ratio of the subjects tended to increase with aging. CONCLUSIONS: The aging effect on the sleep architecture in Korean OSAS seems to be a mixture of the changes by normal aging and sleep disorder per se. The severity of OSAS was not correlated with age, but highly correlated with BMI. The severity of OSAS and the change of sleep architecture of male patients were severer than those of female ones.
Aging ; Body Mass Index ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Polysomnography ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive ; Sleep Stages

Cognitive deficit is frequently observed in patients with schizophrenia. It is significantly associated with functional outcome. In the past 20 years, due to significant advances on the concept of schizophrenia, cognitive deficit has been accepted as a core feature. In the DSM-5, cognitive deficit does not introduce diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia, but did one dimension of diagnosis of psychosis. Existing schizophrenia drugs are effective in treatment of positive symptoms of schizophrenia, but lack of effectiveness on improving cognitive function. Led by NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), the MATRICS (Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) meeting was conducted in order to achieve consensus on measuring tools and neuropharmacological targets for clinical trials for development of new drugs for improvement of cognitive function in schizophrenia. At the MATRICS consensus meeting, glutamatergic modulators and nicotinic and muscarinic agonists are expected to be promising, but should be proven by a double-blind placebo-controlled multicenter study for patients.
Cognition ; Consensus ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Muscarinic Agonists ; National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia*

Objectives: To investigate clinical factors affecting constipation in patients with schizophrenia taking clozapine. Methods: The participants were patients with schizophrenia taking clozapine and tested for the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring from September 1, 2020 to July 1, 2022 at a university hospital. To evaluate the effect of clozapine on constipation, clozapine dosage, clozapine concentration, and norclozapine concentration were investigated. To evaluate effects of drugs other than clozapine on constipation, dosage and type of other drug were investigated. Anticholinergic Drug Scale was used to evaluate anticholinergic action. Results: A total of 56 patients were enrolled in the study. Clozapine daily dose, clozapine concentration, and norclozapine concentration were higher in the constipated patient group. Through logistic regression analysis, it was discovered that the risk of constipation increased as the norclozapine concentration increased, and the results remained similarly even after adjustments of related variables was performed. Conclusion It was discoverd that among patients taking clozapine, the higher the norclozapine concentration, the higher the probability of constipation. Among patients taking clozapine, patients with high norclozapine concentration may need additional evaluation and management of constipation.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the influence of different sizes of spoons (normal spoon, 8.3 cc vs small spoon, 4 cc) on eating rate, energy intake and the satiety levels of female college students. METHODS: Twenty four healthy female college students participated in this study once a week for 2 weeks. Two hundred ten grams of cooked rice and 250 g of beef shank soup with a normal spoon and same amount of rice and soup with a small size spoon were served to the same participants over two consecutive weeks. After each lunch, the eating rate, energy intake, and the satiety levels were measured. RESULTS: Results showed that the subjects who were using a small spoon ate less beef shank soup (149.0 kcal) (p < 0.01) and had lower total energy intake (423.3 kcal) (p < 0.05) than using a normal spoon (178.7 and 461.1 kcal, respectively). Also, the meal time (15.7 min) (p < 0.01), a serving per one spoon (8.6 g) (p < 0.001), and eating rate (27.9 g/min) (p < 0.001) of those who used a small spoon were significantly different than that of those who used a normal spoon (13.6 min, 12.5 g and 35.7 g/min, respectively). However, despite consuming less energy at lunch, the level of satiety after eating from the small spoon was not significantly different from the normal spoon immediately after, 1 hour after and 2 hour after lunch. CONCLUSIONS: Our results revealed that students were able to control their eating rate by using a small spoon and they could feel full enough even though they eat less. In conclusion, eating rate decrease by using a small spoon may play an important role in food intake.
Eating* ; Energy Intake* ; Female* ; Humans ; Lunch ; Meals

Most osteosarcomas arise spontaneously, but rarely they may be secondary to other benign osseous conditions and may occur following irradiation. Postradiation sarcoma of bone is approximately 5.5 percent of all osteogenic sarcoma. Diagnosis is possible when a sarcoma arising after long latent period(more than 3 years) in irradiated bone and the bone is normal or benign osseous lesion at the time of irradiation. The spontaneously arising osteogenic sarcomas are distribute mainly in the knee region, but postradiation sarcoma arise in any bones, such as long bone of the extremity, pelvic bone, vertebra, craniofacial bone and shoulder girdle bone. Recently we experienced a case of postradiation osteosarcoma of the pelvic bone who received radiation therapy for carcinoma of the uterine cervix 20 years ago.
Cervix Uteri ; Diagnosis ; Extremities ; Female ; Knee ; Osteosarcoma* ; Pelvic Bones* ; Sarcoma ; Shoulder ; Spine

OBJECTIVE: Hyperprolactinemia and associated side effect, amenorrhea, often occur with risperidone treatment. We investigated the effect of adjunctive treatment with aripiprazole on risperidone induced amenorrhea in female patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: A retrospective chart review of 24 female patients with adjunctive aripiprazole treatment for risperidone induced amenorrhea between August 2008 and July 2009 was conducted. The information collected included age, menstrual cycle, duration of no menstruation, prolactin level (before aripiprazole treatment and after regaining menstruation), dose of risperidone and aripiprzole, time from starting aripiprazole adjunctive treatment to regaing menstruation. The Student's t-test, Pearson's Chi-square test were used for data analysis. RESULTS: Mean percent decrease in prolactin level for all aripiprazole-treated patients was 71.4+/-8.6%. 85.7% (18/21) of patients resumed menstruation, while 14.3% (3/21) did not regain. In patients with regaining menstruation, mean time from starting aripiprazole to restarting menstruation was 6.6+/-2.4 weeks, mean dose of aripiprazole was 12.2+/-3.9 mg/day (dose range, 5 mg to 20 mg/day). Aripiprazole dose for regaining menstruation was not significantly correlated with baseline prolactin level. CGI score was not significantly changed after aripiprazole treatment. The cutoff point of prolactin level significantly increasing amenorrhea was 40 ng/mL. CONCLUSION: Adjunctive aripiprazole treatment is very effective to treat risperidone induced amenorrhea in female patients with schizophrenia.
Amenorrhea ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperprolactinemia ; Menstrual Cycle ; Menstruation ; Piperazines ; Prolactin ; Quinolones ; Retrospective Studies ; Risperidone ; Schizophrenia

No abstract available.
Diagnosis*

Schizophrenia is a major chronic mental illness with various symptoms that is often accompanied by substance use disorders. Patients with schizophrenia have a higher smoking rate than the general population and a lower smoking cessation success rate. Further, their motivation for smoking cessation is often low. Individuals with schizophrenia that are past or present cigarette smokers are more difficult to treat in terms of psychotic symptoms, are more likely to have physical illnesses, and have higher mortality rates. A variety of treatments, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, are used to aid smoking cessation in patients with schizophrenia. Among these, bupropion, varenicline, and nicotine replacement therapy can be safely used in patients with schizophrenia, and several studies have demonstrated their effects. Cigarette smoking is an important health problem. The study of smoking cessation in individuals with schizophrenia may help improve their ability to function and their quality of life through active evaluation and treatment.
Bupropion ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Mortality ; Motivation ; Nicotine ; Quality of Life ; Schizophrenia ; Smoke ; Smoking Cessation ; Smoking ; Substance-Related Disorders ; Tobacco Products ; Varenicline

One important purpose of premedical education is to help students attain core competencies during the two-year premedical program. Since premedical curriculum is the foundation of medical education, it is necessary to develop the premedical curriculum in accordance with the overarching curriculum of a medical school. Inje University's College of Medicine (IUCM) has attempted to integrate competency-based medical education into the premedical education curriculum. The revised premedical curriculum aims to develop students' intrinsic competencies during premedical years. In an effort to do so, IUCM defined competencies for premedical education, analyzed and designed premedical courses according to the defined competencies, and suggested learner-centered instructional methods. As a result of implementing the revised premedical curriculum, students have reported both positive experiences and difficulties. Based on the results, it will be necessary to continuously improve the premedical curriculum as well as develop appropriate methods for evaluating student achievement of the defined competencies.
Competency-Based Education ; Curriculum ; Education, Medical ; Education, Premedical ; Humans ; Schools, Medical