OBJECTIVES: Recently, the outpatient group psychotherapy has been changed from traditional long-term therapy to short-term or time-limited therapy. The termination time and session numbers are given from start line in the time-limited therapy while 10 to 40 sessions are needed in the short-term therapy. And therapist and patients come to an agreement of the accomplishable therapeutic goal and work together actively. The time-limited group psychotherapy is being accepted newly as an efficient therapeutic modality because effective therapeutic outcomes within given time have been reported. The objectives of this study are as follows; firstly, we examine the therapeutic outcomes and the therapeutic factors after performing the time-limited group psychotherapy for outpatients in the psychiatric clinic; secondly, we analyze the characteristics showed in the process of study; lastly, we verify the feasibility and the validity of this group psychotherapy and then establish the basis of the effective outpatient therapy that would be settled down as an applicable treatment modality economically and efficiently in the current medical environment of Korea. METHODS: This study was performed weekly in total 12 sessions from July 1999, April 2000 to and each session took 70-80 minutes. The experimental group were composed of the highly-functioning psychotic patients among outpatients in the psychiatric clinic. The control group were composed of the similar patients through one-to-one matching of age, sex, diagnosis, and duration of illness. The participants were 8 patients each. BDI(Beck Depression Inventory), STAI(Spielbergs State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), MMPI(Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), and EDMT(Ewha Defence Mechanism Test) as the evaluation scales were performed before and after treatment. And 13-therapeutic factors scale was performed just after each session and the self-report total assessment questionnaire was performed only in experimental group at the end of this study. RESULTS: The mean score of BDI was decreased significantly in experimental group in comparison with control group. The mean score of STAI-S was not changed significantly in both group, and the mean score of STAI-T was decreased in experimental group in comparison with control group. The mean score of MMPI was decreased significantly in experimental group in comparison with control group, but the comparison of difference scores(post-treatment score - pre-treatment score) between the experimental and control group was not decreased significantly. This result may come from psychopharmacotherapy and individual supportive psychotherapy given equally to both group. The mean scores of immature defence and neurotic defence in EDMT were decreased significantly in experimental group compared with control group. Comparing the therapeutic factors to divide into the first, middle, and the last stage, existential factor was ranked first, and catharsis, identification with therapist, universality, and group cohesiveness were ranked high in all stages. Interpersonal learning was ranked first in the last stage although being ranked low in the first and middle stage. The total assessment questionnaires about group psychotherapy were reported that 100% of participants were helped, 75% of participants were changed in their lives, and 75% of participants had minds to join this kind of program again if given for them. CONCLUSIONS: This result shows that not only symptom relief but also personality change was achieved when the time-limited group psychotherapy was practiced in addition to simple psychophamarcotherapy and individual supportive psychotherapy for outpatients. The degree of satisfaction for group psychotherapy of participants were evaluated highly. Group psychotherapy has been accepted in public as a therapeutic modality that must be as equally effective as psychotherapy although group psychotherapy derives from individual psychotherapy. In our current medical environment that has been changed suddenly by the separation of medical practice and pharmaceutical dispensing and the decrease of medical fee, group psychotherapy or time-limited therapy would be settled down as low-expense and high-efficiency therapeutic modalities that were as equally effective as individual psychotherapy or long-term therapy.
Anxiety ; Catharsis ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Fees, Medical ; Humans ; Korea ; Learning ; MMPI ; Outpatients* ; Psychotherapy ; Psychotherapy, Group* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Weights and Measures

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Transforming growth factor-a(TGF-a) is a polypeptide cytokine related to cell proliferation and transformation. TGF-a binds to EGF receptor and stimulating DNA synthesis in liver cell. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) by itself is also believed to play a role in the hepatic carcinogenesis. Recently, it was reported that TGF-a and HBV were synergistic in action with rapid appearance of hepatocelluar carcinoma in bitransgenic mice. Although TGF- a is thought to play an important role in hepatocarcinogenesis, its expression during the natural history of HBV hepatitis was poorly understood. This investigation was performed to elucidate the dynamic changes and istinct immunohistochemical staining patterns in the course of chronic HBV hepatitis with specific reference to hepatocelluar carcinoma and to explain the role of TGF-a in the pathogenesis of hepatocelluar carcinoma. MATERIALS/METHODS: Employing TGF-a monoclonal antibody, signal detection was carried out by peroxidase-conjugated streptavidin in deparaffinized liver tissue sections taken from HBsAg positive patients. All of the liver tissue sections were proven HBV DNA positive by in situ hybridization. Immunohistochemical staining was performed in the tissue sections obtained from four normal controls, six from patients with chronic persistent hepatitis, five with chronic active hepatitis, eight with liver cirrhosis and eleven with hepatocellular carcinoma. RESULTS: The patterns of TGF-a immunoreactivity were cytoplasmic-grain types in normal controls and chronic persistent hepatitis, honeycomb types in chronic active hepatitis, occasional cytoplasmic-flooding types in liver cirrhosis, and cytoplasmic-grape types in hepatocellular carcinoma. A Shapiro-Wilk W test for frequency table analysis for the expression of TGF-a in these different disease groups was statistically significant. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that step-wise distinct expression of TGF-a enhancement in HBV associated chranic liver diseases which eventually resulted in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma were conceivably due to dysregulation of liver cell cycles by both HBV and TGF-a during the persistent repetition of cell cycles.
Animals ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Proliferation ; DNA ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis, Chronic* ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver Diseases ; Liver* ; Mice ; Natural History ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; Streptavidin

No abstract available.
RNA, Messenger*

No abstract available.
Humans* ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung*

No abstract available.
Humans* ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis*

No abstract available.
Humans* ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1* ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung*

Acute appendicitis is a common disease, in general, but is rare in the elderly. This report is a clinical review of 148 patients over the age of 60 who, due to acute appendicitis, underwent appendectomies at the Department of General Surgery of Saint Columban Hospital from January 1993 to December 1995. The results are as follows: 1) The overall percentage of the patients over the age of 60 was about 16.4%. 2) The male to female ratio was 1:1.6. 3) The perforation rate was 33.1%. 4) The mean duration of symptoms were 2 days in non-perforated and 4.5 days in perforated appendicitis. 5) The chief complaints were pain (86.5%) and tenderness (88.5%) on right lower quadrant. 6) This disease occurred most frequently in spring and summer. 7) The highest incidence of leukocyte count was 10,000~15,000 per cubic mm of blood (50%). 8) The most frequent postoperative complication was wound infection as 14.2%. 9) sixty-seven cases (45.3%) were accompanied by concomitant disease, the most frequent being hypertention (14.9%). 10) The mean numbers of hospital days were 7.5 in non-perforated and 14 in perforated appendicitis.
Aged ; Appendectomy ; Appendicitis* ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leukocyte Count ; Male ; Postoperative Complications ; Saints ; Wound Infection

No abstract available.
Fascia* ; Nasolabial Fold*

No abstract available.
Heart Septal Defects, Atrial* ; Hemodynamics*

OBJECTIVE: Pathogenesis of the endometriosis is very complex and the etiology is still unclear. Our hypothesis is that there may be some difference in gene expression patterns between eutopic endometriums with or without endometriosis. In this study, we analyzed the difference of gene expression profile with cDNA microarray. METHODS: Endometrial tissues were gathered from patients with endometriosis or other benign gynecologic diseases. cDNA microarray technique was applied to screen the different gene expression profiles from early and late secretory phase endometria of those two groups. Each three mRNA samples isolated from early and late secretory phase of endometrial tissues of control were pooled and used as master controls and labeled with Cy3-dUTP. Then the differences of gene expression pattern were screened by comparing eutopic endometria with endometriosis, which were labeled with Cy5-dUTP. Fluorescent labeled probes were hybridized on a microarray of 4,800 human genes. RESULTS: Twelve genes were consistently overexpressed in the endometrium of endometriosis such as ATP synthase H transporting F1 (ATP5B), eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1, isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (NADP+), mitochondrial ribosomal protein L3, ATP synthase H+ transporting (ATP5C1) and TNF alpha factor. Eleven genes were consistently down-regulated in the endometriosis samples. Many extracellular matrix protein genes (decorin, lumican, EGF-containing fibulin-like extracellular matrix protein 1, fibulin 5, and matrix Gla protein) and protease/protease inhibitors (serine proteinase inhibitor, matrix metalloproteinase 2, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1), and insulin like growth factor II associated protein were included. Expression patterns of selected eight genes from the cDNA microarray were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR or real time RT-PCR. CONCLUSION: The result of this analysis supports the hypothesis that the endometrium from patients with endometriosis has distinct gene expression profile from control endometrium without endometriosis.
Adenosine Triphosphate ; Endometriosis* ; Endometrium* ; Extracellular Matrix ; Female ; Gene Expression* ; Genital Diseases, Female ; Humans ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor II ; Isocitrate Dehydrogenase ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Peptide Elongation Factor 1 ; Ribosomal Proteins ; RNA, Messenger ; Transcriptome*