OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify differences in thinking between schizophrenic patients and healthy subjects with linguistic-philosophical approach and to develop a tool to measure pathological thinking. METHODS: Approximately 50 cards(pictures of either representational or abstract sculptures and paintings) from the previous experiment(1997) were carefully examined and 10 cards were selected based on their variety and promptness of the response. Twenty-four schizophrenic patients and 19 healthy subjects participated in this experiment. Participants were required to give a title to each picture. Their responses were analysed based on the forms of thinking, abstractness(or concreteness) and the category of the title. Each response was also coded either direct or indirect. RESULTS: 1) Schizophrenic patients emitted more direct and simple descriptive responses whereas healthy subjects showed projection-related direct traits, indirect traits, indirect association and generalization. 2) Both groups tended to utilize the whole rather than parts. Schizophrenic group depended more on the whole pictures than healthy group. Healthy subjects showed more generalization tendency with parts. 3) Both groups preferred concrete titles to abstract ones. Schizophrenic group(95.3%) used more concrete titles than healthy group(71.4%) and healthy group(28.65%) used more abstract titles than schizophrenic group(4.7%). 4) Schizophrenic patients(73.5%) showed more directness in thinking than healthy subjects, whereas healthy subjects(58.7%) more indirectness. CONCLUSIONS: 1) Schizophrenic patients clearly showed direct and simple forms of thinking and expressive language, lacking reasoning, and systematic processing. Additionally, schizophrenic patients simply responded to the whole and used concrete and direct expression. 2) Replication study is warranted to improve reliability and validity of the tool we developed. Research on individual differences needs to be conducted to measure differences among individuals and change over time in an individual. 3) Further study on the factors which might be related to forms of thinking and language expressions, such as intelligence is warranted.
Generalization (Psychology) ; Humans ; Individuality ; Intelligence ; Reproducibility of Results ; Schizophrenia ; Sculpture ; Thinking

OBJECTIVES: Along with the fact that people change their attitude on aesthetic surgery, many people become to have positive viewpoint on aesthetic surgery. However, according to the recent study result, it showed that aesthetic surgery patients tend to have psychopathology. To investigate effects of aesthetic surgery and tendency of aesthetic surgery patients which is presumed to be changed, various psychological evaluations were performed in the sample who had undergone aesthetic surgery. Also psychiatric and psychological attributes of aesthetic plastic surgery patients were compared with those of reconstructive surgery group and those of normal controls. METHOD: 50 of reconstructive surgery group and 50 of normal control group were selected from Dept. of Plastic Surgery of Chungbuk National University Hospital and two private plastic surgery clinics in Cheong-ju. To find out each group's psychological attributes, pre- and post-operative psychological conditions were evaluated by administering basic survey, body image scale, ego identity scale, and SCL-90-R. RESULT: 1) Patients in the group of reconstructive surgery received more stress than those in the group of aesthetic surgery and normal controls. 2) There were no significant differences in the scores of body image scale, ego identity scale and SCL-90-R between reconstructive surgery group and normal control group. 3) After aesthetic surgery, aesthetic surgery group showed improvement in almost every item in SCL-90-R, such as somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoid ideation, GSI, PSDI and PST sub-scales. 4) The factors which affected on the satisfaction after surgery among group of aesthetic surgery were self-acceptance, uniqueness in self-identity scale and obsessive-compulsive, somatization in SCL-90-R. When self-acceptance was low and self-uniqueness was high, satisfaction was high. And the more patients complained about physical symptom, satisfaction was low. 5) The factors which influenced on the opinion of re-operation among group of aesthetic surgery were stability in self-identity scale, obsessive-compulsive and somatization in SCL-90-R, and physical health in body image scale. When stability was low, complaints about physical symptoms were high, viewpoint on one's health was negative and the chance of re-operation was high. 6) In group of aesthetic surgery, the higher the expectation was before surgery, the lower the satisfaction was after surgery. CONCLUSION: As described in above study result, patients who planned to have aesthetic surgery were not different from common people in terms of psychopathology. And it was also found that aesthetic surgery could improve patients' mental health. If simply administrable evaluation method to measure complaints about physical symptoms, viewpoint on one's health, stability and obsessive-compulsive is invented in the near future, it will be possible to screen patients who are likely to have low satisfaction after surgery and high tendency to have re-operation.
Anxiety ; Body Image ; Chungcheongbuk-do ; Depression ; Ego ; Hostility ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Psychopathology ; Surgery, Plastic*

OBJECT: More than 75% of women have been reported to experience premenstrual symptoms and three to eight percent of them suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder(PMDD). But little is known about prevalence of premenstrual syndrome(PMS) and PMDD among Korean women. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of PMDD and PMS in Korean women who attended universities at the time of survey. METHODS: One thousand four hundred and nineteen subjects were randomly selected with cluster sampling method among four women's university in Seoul. We measured the severity of premenstrual symptoms using six-point rating scale developed by the authors on the basis of the research criteria for PMDD in DSM-IV. Premenstrual worsening of symptoms was defined as increase in symptom scores of more than 75% from follicular to luteal phase score. And also, we compared characteristic symptoms, eating behaviors, and functional impairments between PMS and PMDD. RESULT: After excluding inadequate data according to our exclusion criteria, 873 of 1419 subjects(61.5%) were included in the estimation of the prevalence of PMS and PMDD. Each prevalence rate of PMS and PMDD was found to be 83.3% and 5.0% on the basis of 75% change method respectively. The most frequent symptom was physical symptoms such as headache or breast tenderness(56.4%) in PMS and 'felt irritable'(95.5%) in PMDD. Of the 44 subjects with PMDD, 39(88.6%) reported to have experienced the impairment in work or school at least once per month because of premenstrual symptoms. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that prevalence and symptoms of PMDD in Korean university women are similar to those in western culture. The finding that mood symptoms were more frequent and severe in PMDD than in PMS implies that the former may be a disordered condition to be distinguished from the latter physiologic one.
Breast ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Epidemiology ; Feeding Behavior ; Female ; Headache ; Humans ; Luteal Phase ; Premenstrual Syndrome ; Prevalence* ; Seoul

OBJECTIVES: The Young's internet addiction test (IAT) is used worldwide, and the psychometric properties of IAT have been documented in other countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate and validate the factors and structure of the IAT as applied to Korean college students. METHODS: Data was collected from students (n=2216) at Kongju National University via an online survey system. The factor structures of the IAT were assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: The IAT produced acceptable internal consistency and reliability (Cronbach alpha=0.921). We discovered that the two-factor structure of the IAT produced acceptable psychometric properties. Factor 1 consisted of the aspiration and obsession to achieve orientation in cyberspace, Factor 2 consists of loss of control, withdrawal, and neglect of social interaction and duties. These findings were inconsistent with those of previous studies. There were no significant gender differences observed in internet addiction rates. CONCLUSION: IAT is a reliable scale which identifies two internet addiction factors in Korean college students. This scale could be useful to quantitatively evaluate internet addiction.
Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Humans ; Internet ; Interpersonal Relations ; Obsessive Behavior ; Orientation ; Psychometrics

The aim of this literature review was to evaluate the hedonic aspect of eating-related disorders. Addiction research has implications for the study of eating disorders and obesity and therefore, we collated and summarized recent clinical and neuroscience findings in regard to the "wanting" or "liking" aspect of eating disorders and obesity. The addictive personality is prone to substance dependence and these personality types are also known to be susceptible to binge eating. The biological framework underpinning the hedonic aspect of abnormal eating behavior has two components: 1) the incentive component of "wanting" or, in its extreme, craving feeling involving the dopaminergic system, and 2) the pleasure or "liking" network involving the opioid and cannabinoid systems. The hedonic system is not merely related to food, but is part of a global organizational unit governing behavioral choices. In general, patients with anorexia nervosa (restricting) were less sensitive to reward, whereas patients with bulimia nervosa (binge/purge) were more sensitive to reward. People with obesity tended to be more sensitive to food as a reward, a function which involves the dopamine system. While recognizing the addictive aspect of abnormal eating behaviors, we have provided treatment recommendations with respect to these disorders and obesity.
Anorexia Nervosa ; Bulimia ; Bulimia Nervosa ; Dopamine ; Eating ; Feeding and Eating Disorders ; Feeding Behavior ; Humans ; Motivation ; Neurosciences ; Obesity ; Pleasure ; Reward ; Substance-Related Disorders

Professor Dr. Charles I. McLaren (1882-1957) of the Department of Psychiatry, Severance Union School of Medicine in Seoul, Korea had introduced not only Christianity but medicine and psychiatry of his time with his own theories to Korea while he had served as a Christian missionary from Australia to Korea from 1911 to 1941. Based on his view of Christianity and knowledge of modern science and medicine, he tried to explore the etiology, symptoms, treatment and spiritual meaning of mental disorders including general paresis, dementia praecox, mania, melancholia, paranoia, neurasthnenia, hysteria, hypochondriasis, and even psychophysiological disorder. Though he accepted that mental disorders are related to disrupted functions of brain or neurons, he believed that fundamental causes of insanity is spiritual. Regarding etiology, he suggested that people's choice not to follow God's logos by their free-will and consequent disharmony with nature or human society or failure of self to adapt to reality causes mental disorders. And he explained psychotic phenomena in view of Christian spirituality. In addition, he argued "psychic" (psychological or spiritual) conflict, sensitivity and guilt feeling as a possible etiology of psycho-neurosis including neurasthenia, hysteria and hypochondria. Conflict includes not only sexual conflicts but social conflicts related to family, job, money, or guilt feeling. He also emphasized the meaning and purpose of life in relation to development of mental illness. Remarkably, he introduced idea of "spill-over" to explain how emotional problems influence autonomic dysfunction resulting in psycho- physiological symptoms. He can be recognized as a psychiatrist who integrated bio-medical descriptive psychiatry with psycho-social approach, dynamic psychotherapy and even spiritual approach as a fundamental one. Though many scientific criticism can be given to his theories of psychaitry, he is deserved to be rediscovered and recognized as a pioneer who had shown another apprach to mental disorders to present psychiatrists who are lost in confusion with so many uncertainties in regard to understanding and treating mental disorders.
Australia ; Bipolar Disorder ; Brain ; Christianity ; Depressive Disorder ; Guilt ; Humans ; Hypochondriasis ; Hysteria ; Korea ; Mental Disorders ; Missions and Missionaries ; Neurasthenia ; Neurons ; Neurosyphilis ; Paranoid Disorders ; Psychiatry ; Psychophysiologic Disorders ; Psychotherapy ; Schizophrenia ; Spirituality

Of the anxiety disorders which may be identified in a clinical setting, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has often been overlooked for several reasons : 1) its unremarkable place in the diagnostic hierarchy, 2) relationship to excessive anxiety and worry, and 3) comorbidity with other mental disorders which may take clinical precedence. However, clinicians should be attentive to the clinical signs leading to a diagnosis of GAD. This paper reviewed the availability of reliable assessment tools to help clinicians diagnose and assess GAD. First, diagnostic interview tools targeting GAD were introduced. Then, the tools for assessing worry (intensity/frequency/topic), factors associated with its maintenance (cognitive avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty), and tools for assessing generalized anxiety (severity/aspects), comorbid condition and differential diagnosis were reviewed. Lastly, cultural and developmental aspects related to GAD were addressed. The considerations included in this report were summarized in a flow chart and table that are practically useful in the diagnoses and assessment of GAD. Thus, this review provided guidelines for clinicians in the Korean psychiatric setting to enable appropriate diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of GAD.
Anxiety ; Anxiety Disorders ; Comorbidity ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Hypogonadism ; Mental Disorders ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Ophthalmoplegia

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Humans ; Violence*