No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Mefloquine is a common anti-malarial agent used for the treatment and prophylaxis of malaria. Here we report a case of a 39-year-old, otherwise healthy woman from South Korea, who had developed visual and auditory hallucination with sleep disturbance after oral administration of mefloquine before traveling to an endemic region. To our knowledge, this would be the first reported case of mefloquine-induced psychosis in South Korea to date. This report underlines the importance of awareness and detection of neuropsychiatric side effects of mefloquine.
Administration, Oral ; Female ; Hallucinations ; Humans ; Malaria ; Mefloquine ; Psychotic Disorders ; Republic of Korea

Treatment of schizophrenia is one of the most challenging areas in the field of psychiatry. There has been much improvement in psycho-pharmacotherapy, and at present, psycho-pharmacotherapy along with milieu therapy and social rehabilitation is the standard first-line treatment for schizophrenia. Healing environment, a concept which has arisen from the architectural field, has similarities in meaning to milieu therapy in psychiatry. In other words, healing environment may be an encountering point between psychiatry and architecture. In this encountering, each field can understand each other and expand its concept to aid the treatment of schizophrenia and to plan the build-up of the entire environment considering its social and psychological effects. In this paper, we aim to establish the basic concept of healing environment to alleviate the psychopathologies in schizophrenic patients. We worked under the premise that physical setting affects human behavior and mind, and that physical setting should play a role as a medium with therapeutic potential for patients with medical problems. The aims of this paper are as follows. First, theoretical discussion of the concept and the constructs of healing environment : second, understanding of the schizophrenic symptoms that may be affected by supporting environment : and third, discussion of supporting environment that may alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Humans ; Milieu Therapy ; Rehabilitation ; Schizophrenia*

No abstract available.
Hospitalization ; Humans

There have been a few case reports that clozapine, an atypical antipsychotic, caused acute renal failure of interstitial type. Here we report a case of a 38-year-old Korean male patient with treatment-resistant bipolar I disorder who developed acute renal failure after the initiation of treatment with clozapine. We describe the clinical and laboratory findings of the case and discuss the measures for early detection of this life threating condition. Within our knowledge, this is the first report of clozapine-induced acute renal failure in South Korea.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Clozapine ; Humans ; Male ; Nephritis, Interstitial ; Republic of Korea

OBJECTIVE: Psychotropic drugs use in pregnant mothers with psychiatric disorders raises issues of safety not only with the mothers but also with fetal development and the postpartum prognosis of the neonate. Several studies have reported on the harmful effects of antenatal exposure to psychotropic drugs. However, debatable disregard of the psychiatric disorder itself and issues of necessary and useful pharmacotherapy clouds the results. Hence, the purpose of this study was to retrospectively examine the association between prenatal psychotropic exposure and clinically evident fetal adverse effects. METHODS: From January 1994 to December 2011, a retrospective chart review of patients diagnosed with a major psychiatric disorder from the department of psychiatry and who also had a history of giving birth at the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Ajou University Hospital was conducted. Participants were divided into two groups: those taking psychotropic drugs during pregnancy were designated to the case group and the control group consisted of those not on psychotropics during pregnancy. Psychotropics included antidepressants, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines used in clinical dosages. Then the two groups were compared on factors such as gestational age, the offspring's birth weight, bitemporal diameter, and Apgar scores. After then, we analyzed relatively risk potential to the preterm labor in such variables (old age pregnancy, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension and exposure psychotropics in pregnancy). T-test and logistic regression analysis of the data was performed. RESULTS: Demographic and clinical characteristics did not differ significantly between the groups. Also, there was no significant difference in gestational age, birth weight, bitemporal diameter and Apgar scores between the exposure and non-exposure groups. There was no significant relationship between psychotropic exposure during pregnancy, old age pregnancy, gestational diabetes and preterm labor. However, the relationship between gestational hypertension and preterm labor was significant. CONCLUSION: Psychotropic drugs are considered as significant clinical treatment options to control symptoms of psychiatric disorders during pregnancy. In the clinical setting there was no statistically significant relationship between psychotropic exposure and gestational age on fetal development. However the retrospective nature of the study limits the interpretation of the data and constant close monitoring of pregnant patients in the clinical setting is advised.
Antidepressive Agents ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Benzodiazepines ; Birth Weight ; Diabetes, Gestational ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Fetal Development ; Fetus* ; Gestational Age ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced ; Infant, Newborn ; Logistic Models ; Mothers ; Obstetric Labor, Premature* ; Obstetrics ; Parturition ; Postpartum Period ; Pregnancy ; Prognosis ; Psychotropic Drugs ; Retrospective Studies

Here we report a case of serotonin syndrome caused by fluoxetine 20 mg and duloxetine 60 mg independently eight week apart. A 65-year old man developed fever, agitation and change of mental status after two weeks treatment with 20 mg of fluoxetine for depressive disorder. He was diagnosed unknown fever origin and discharged when fever subsided as antidepressant stopped. Eight weeks later he was prescribed 60 mg of duloxetine for the treatment of depressed mood. After 18 days on duloxetine he developed fever, agitation, myoclonus and change in mental status again. He improved rapidly after discontinuation of offending drug with supportive care. Despite serotonin syndrome is usually caused by poly-pharmacy of serotonergic drugs, this case shows unusual serotonin syndrome developed by therapeutic dose of two drugs of different classes independently.
Depressive Disorder ; Dihydroergotamine ; Fever ; Fluoxetine ; Humans ; Myoclonus ; Serotonin ; Serotonin Agents ; Serotonin Syndrome ; Thiophenes ; Duloxetine Hydrochloride

Tic disorder is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder that is characterized by both motor or phonic tics. Two thirds of children with tic disorder experience reduction or complete resolution of tic symptoms during adolescence. Doluble-blind trial have demonstrated that the typical antipsychotics are better than placebo. Recently, atypical antipsychotics have been used successfully. A 37- year- old man, was diagnosed with chronic motor tic disorder during childhood. Over the last 27 years, his tic symptoms have improved. At the age of thirty-seven, he abruptly developed complex motor and vocal tics. The mMotor tics included shoulder shrugging, and neck and leg movement. The severity of tics was assessed at baseline using the Yale global tic severity scale(YGTSS) before initiating treatment. Global severity score of YGTSS at baseline was 58. He was initially prescribed with aripiprazole 5mg /day. After two days, his global severity score of YGTSS decreased to 20, and. this improvement was maintained for eight weeks. Aripiprazole, a newer atypical antipsychotic with a unique pharmacodynamic profile, appears to be efficacious in treatment of tic disorder.
Adolescent ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Child ; Humans ; Leg ; Neck ; Shoulder ; Tic Disorders* ; Tics*

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate shame-related adjectives in the Korean language and to explore the factor structure of these adjectives. METHODS: Shame-related words were extracted from an adjectives checklist, the Korean Dictionary, the Korean Synonym Dictionary, and various shame scales developed by Western investigators. A questionnaire (the Korean Shame Scale: KSS) was constructed from 62 selected adjectives, and administered to 210 college students and 204 adults. The subjects also completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Brief-Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, the Revised Cheek & Buss Shyness Scale, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. RESULTS: A principal component analysis of the KSS data revealed a four factor structure: mortification, modesty, shyness, and embarrassment. All except the modesty factor showed significant correlations with depression, fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and distress, and shyness. The college student group reported experiencing a shame-related distressful emotion more frequently than the adult group. CONCLUSION: Shame was found to be a complex psychological construct composed of quite different emotions. These emotions not only included painful feelings and uncomfortable self-consciousness, but were also related to personality traits and interpersonal attitudes.
Adult ; Checklist ; Cheek ; Depression ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Humans ; Principal Component Analysis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Research Personnel ; Shame ; Shyness ; Social Desirability ; Weights and Measures