OBJECTIVES: We tried to judge appropriate psychiatric hospitalization in Korea. Mental health policy necessitates the evaluation and discussion of the appropirteness for psychiatric hospitalization. This consideration will be the important index for mental helath in Korea. METHOD: We selected samples by probability proportional to size(PPS) And we used Appropriateness Evaluation Scale(AES)developed by us. Criteria asessment and clinical assessment were done by mental health professionals and psychiatrists. Overall assessment followed our flow chart. Data were analyzed with SAS(Statistical Analysis System)using Chi-square test. RESULTS: In the overall assessment, the rate of appropriate psychiatric hospitalization was 45.1%. The most contributing factors to appropriate psychiatric hospitalization were the kind of institutions, age, sex, the classification of diseases in descending order. CONCLUSION: We think that the results of this studies for appropriate psychiatric hospitalization will be followed by next other research and also the inappropriate psychiatric hospitalization will be scrutinized further.
Classification ; Hospitalization* ; Korea* ; Mental Health ; Psychiatry

Delirium is not uncommon and is a devastating clinical syndrome. Elderly patients are vulnerable to delirium, especially demented or/and medically-surgically ill patients. Old age, comorbid psychiatric, medical and/or neurological diseases, medications, changed pharmacodynamics, sensory impairment and psychosocial stresses contribute to the development of delirium. Delirium in elderly patients is somewhat different from delirium in younger patients, sometimes under detected and/or poorly managed. This review discusses the diagnosis, classification, etiology and treatment, and presents 3 clinical cases of delirium in elderly patients. This review also focuses on a practical approach in assessing and managing delirium in elderly patients. The management of delirium consists of identifying and correcting the underlying problems, including prescribing suitable medication.
Aged* ; Classification ; Delirium* ; Diagnosis ; Geriatric Psychiatry ; Humans

Recently, the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association (KCNP) has been expanded greatly in the number of members as well as the qualities in the area of practice and research. There are also 23 affiliated academic societies : Korean Academy of Psychotherapists, Korean Society for Analytical Psychology, the Korean Psychoanalytic Society, the Korean Association for Clinical Art, Korean Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the Korean Association of Social Psychiatry, The Korean Society of Biological Therapies in Psychiatry, Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Korean Society of Biological Psychiatry, Society of Korean Women Psychiatrists, the Korean Society of Clinical Hypnosis, the Society for Human Sexuality, Korean Society of Sleep Research, the Korean Society for Psychopathology and Psychiatric Classification, Korean Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Korean Psychosomatic Society, Korean Academy of Sleep Medicine, Korean Association for Geriatic Psychiatry, Korean Academy of Psychiatrists in Alcoholism & Addiction, Korean Academy of Adolescent Psychiatry, Korean Academy Schizophrenia, Korean Society for Depressive and Bipolar Disorders, and Korean Academy of Anxiety Disorders. To further encourage the progress of the KCNP affiliated academic societies, the KCNP planning committee has developed the proposed criteria for assessing the societies.
Adolescent ; Adolescent Psychiatry ; Alcoholism ; Anxiety Disorders ; Biological Psychiatry ; Biological Therapy ; Bipolar Disorder ; Child ; Classification ; Community Psychiatry ; Female ; Humans ; Hypnosis ; Jurisprudence ; Psychiatry ; Psychology ; Psychopathology ; Schizophrenia ; Sexuality

This paper reviewed the studies on hwa-byung (HB), which literally means anger disorder and this is known as the culture-related chronic anger syndrome of Koreans. Based on these studies and a review of the literature on the anger syndromes of other cultures, I have proposed a new anger disorder. The rationale for this proposition is first that the clinical correlates of HB, including the epidemiological data, the etiological factors, the symptoms and the clinical course, are unique and different from those of the depressive disorders, which have been postulated to be similar to HB. Second, the symptoms of HB are characterized by pent-up anger and somatic and behavioral symptoms related to the release and suppression of anger. Third, a group of patients with only HB and who visit psychiatrists for treatment have been identified. Fourth, anger is thought to be the basic target of treatment for HB patients. Last, anger syndromes like HB have been identified, with various names, in other cultures. By reducing the cultural variation of HB and integrating the common clinical correlates of the syndromes related to anger, a new anger disorder for the mood of anger can be conceptualized, like that for other mood disorders for the corresponding pathological moods. The research diagnostic criteria for HB and the new anger disorder are also suggested. I propose that the new anger disorder to be included in the new international classification system as a member of the larger family of mood disorders. International collaborative studies are needed not only to identify such anger disorder in various cultures, but also to explore giving better treatment to these patients based on the bio-psycho-social model of anger disorder.
Anger* ; Behavioral Symptoms ; Classification ; Depressive Disorder ; Humans ; Mood Disorders ; Psychiatry

Fundamental difficulties in psychiatric nosology lie in the most basic fact that it deals with subjective states of the human mind. Modern instrumental diagnostic classification systems, which amount to lists of symptom inventories, could not provide accurate concepts of psychiatric disorders. This is also true for schizophrenia, a representative mental disorder. Kraepelin's dementia praecox was a collection of controversially proposed diseases, which had some critical similarities in their clinical features, i.e., the course and outcome. Despite initial debates on the adequacy of this concept, dementia praecox was recognized as a disease entity quite early, so that the concept of dementia praecox or schizophrenia proliferated, became diversified, and was then altered. We can now find large discrepancies between Kraepelin's dementia praecox and today's schizophrenia. However, the myth of disease entity was seldom challenged and psychiatrists today implicitly believe that they are dealing with what Kraepelin had proposed. In order to navigate this impasse, we thought that historical studies on the concept of dementia praecox and underlying taxonomic principles established by 19th century alienists including Kraepelin would shed some light. The aim of this article is to comprehensively review the history of concepts of dementia praecox or schizophrenia, and to question critically how much today's schizophrenia has received the conceptual inheritance from original concepts. Through this process, we expect to attain a renewed understanding of schizophrenia.
Classification ; Equipment and Supplies ; Humans ; Mental Disorders ; Psychiatry ; Schizophrenia* ; Wills

OBJECTIVES: The K-ARS(Korean ADHD Rating Scale) is one of the most important assessment tool of attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) in Korea. In this study, we presented detailed normative data on the K-ARS for school-aged children in Seoul metropolitan area to put it to practical use. METHODS: The subjects were 2,397 students(1,223 boys and 1,174 girls, aged 6-12) from 4 elementary schools in Seoul, and one caretaker of each child completed the K-ARS for parents. Children who showed high scores of the KARS for parents were screened, and 2 child psychiatrists interviewed them to make a clinical diagnosis. We compared the mean scores of the K-ARS for parents between ADHD and normal group, and examined the percentage of correct classification. RESULTS: There were some differences in score of the K-ARS for parents according to sex and age, so we presented continuous normative data with T score and subdivided cut-off points for ADHD screening. Interviews with child psychiatrists using DSM-IV criteria were performed to test diagnostic validity, and the difference in every the K-ARS for parents index between ADHD and normal group was significant(p<.001). Using 3 different cut-off points(80th, 90th, 93rd percentage), the accuracies of ADHD correct classification were 67.9, 72.2, 71.1% and all 3 canonical discriminants were significant(p<.05) between ADHD and normal group. CONCLUSION: The normative data and cut-off points on the K-ARS for parents are useful in screening ADHD children in Seoul metropolitan area.
Child ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Parents* ; Psychiatry ; Seoul

OBJECTIVES: The author tried to find out reasons why and how hysteria(and conversion disorder) patient numbers, which were so prevalent even a few decades ago, have decreased and the phenotype of symptoms have changed. METHODS: The number of visiting patients diagnosed with conversion disorder and their phenotype of symptoms were investigated through chart reviews in a psychiatric department of a University hospital for the last 12 years. Additionally, the characteristics of conversion disorder patients visiting the emergency room for last 2 years were also reviewed. Those results were compared with previous research results even if it seemed to be an indirect comparisons. The research relied on Briquet P. and Charcot JM's established factors of the vicissitudes of hysteria(and conversion disorder) which has been the framework for more than one hundred and fifty years since hysteria has been investigated. RESULTS: The author found decreased numbers and changes of the phenotype of the hysteria patients(and conversion disorder) over the last several decades. The decreased numbers and changes of the symptoms of those seemed to be partly due to several issues. These issues include the development of the diagnostic techniques to identify organic causes of hysteria, repeated changes to the symptom descriptions and diagnostic classification, changes of the brain nervous functions in response to negative emotions, and the influence of human evolution. CONCLUSIONS: The author proposed that the evolutionary brain discord reaction theory explains the causes of disappearance of and changes to symptoms of hysteria(conversion disorder). Most patients with hysteria(conversion disorder) have been diagnosed in the neurological department. For providing more appropriate treatment and minimizing physical disabilities to those patients, psychiatrists should have a major role in cooperating not only with primary care physicians but with neurologists. The term 'hysteria' which had been used long ago should be revived and used as a term to describe diseases such as somatic symptom disorder, functional neurological symptoms, somatization, and somatoform disorders, all of which represent almost the same vague concept as hysteria.
Brain* ; Classification ; Conversion Disorder ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Hysteria ; Phenotype ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Psychiatry ; Somatoform Disorders

Today's diagnostic criteria are based on consensus, however, they are still incomplete and being changed. These unstable but temporarily dogmatic criteria have been constraining the thinking of individual psychiatrists, and invalidating painful scientific achievements based on previous ones. The limitation of the criteria system appears especially clear concerning depression due to the ambiguity of its definition. Therefore, the aim of this article was to review the history of various concepts of depression and to compare this to today's tendency, which attempts to consolidate diversity. In addition to all Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), Internal Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9, ICD-9-CM, and ICD-10 were centrally discussed. Classic descriptions of depression were extracted from reviews of classic literature, and some salient concepts and the process by which they had been integrated, divided, and newly proposed was traced. The descriptions of depression whose prototype had been melancholia have experienced significant conceptual changes through DSM-IV and the most recent DSM-V ; they impose tasks that are yet to be resolved. Among them, whether various depressive syndromes are diverse phenotypes of one disorder or they all represent different disorders could be regarded as the most fundamental problem. In order to conduct fruitful studies and to ensure proper treatment of every patient, more precise nosologic understanding of depression must be pursued.
Classification ; Consensus ; Depression* ; Depressive Disorder ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Fruit ; Humans ; International Classification of Diseases ; Phenotype ; Psychiatry ; Thinking

Today's diagnostic criteria are based on consensus, however, they are still incomplete and being changed. These unstable but temporarily dogmatic criteria have been constraining the thinking of individual psychiatrists, and invalidating painful scientific achievements based on previous ones. The limitation of the criteria system appears especially clear concerning depression due to the ambiguity of its definition. Therefore, the aim of this article was to review the history of various concepts of depression and to compare this to today's tendency, which attempts to consolidate diversity. In addition to all Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), Internal Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9, ICD-9-CM, and ICD-10 were centrally discussed. Classic descriptions of depression were extracted from reviews of classic literature, and some salient concepts and the process by which they had been integrated, divided, and newly proposed was traced. The descriptions of depression whose prototype had been melancholia have experienced significant conceptual changes through DSM-IV and the most recent DSM-V ; they impose tasks that are yet to be resolved. Among them, whether various depressive syndromes are diverse phenotypes of one disorder or they all represent different disorders could be regarded as the most fundamental problem. In order to conduct fruitful studies and to ensure proper treatment of every patient, more precise nosologic understanding of depression must be pursued.
Classification ; Consensus ; Depression* ; Depressive Disorder ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Fruit ; Humans ; International Classification of Diseases ; Phenotype ; Psychiatry ; Thinking

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to confirm the reliability and validity of the GMS-AGECAT(Geriatric Mental State-Automated Geriatric Examination for Computer Assisted Taxonomy in a Korean elderly population. METHODS: Translation committee developed Korean version GMS translating GMS-A3 after preliminary studies. Few changes from the original English version were necessary. A random sample(N= 1256 of the elderly(65+ years in Asan, community was assessed for diagnostic validity. A two-phase study was designed: Korean version of GMS-AGECAT, MMSE and GDS rated by lay interviewer and clinical assessment by psychiatrists according to DSM-IV. A consecutive hospital sample(N=28 of the elderly(65+ years admitted in Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital was assessed for reliability, concurrent & procedural validity. RESULTS: Reliability coefficients of GMS-AGECAT diagnosis were Inter-rater kappa 0.78 and test-retest kappa 0.56. Correlation coefficients for concurrent validity were 0.76 with MMSE and 0.73 with GDS. Procedural validity of psychiatrist's GMS-AGECAT diagnosis and lay-interviewers' were as follow: case/ no case distinction sensitivity 95.5%, specificity 75%; organicity distinction sensitivity 100%, specificity 83.3% and depression distinction, sensitivity 92.3%, specificity 100%. Diagnostic validity of DSM-IV diagnoses and GMS-AGECAT diagnoses were: case/ no case distinction sensitivity 92.7%, specificity 81%, dementia distinction sensitivity 77.3%, specificity 92.1% and depression distinction sensitivity 83.6%, specificity 84.1%. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the reliability and validity of the GMS-AGECAT in Korean elderly. Korean version GMS can be used in the international comparison studies.
Aged ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Classification ; Dementia ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Heart ; Humans ; Psychiatry ; Reproducibility of Results* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Translating