OBJECTIVES: The psychophysiologic response pattern between healthy subjects and patients with generalized anxiety disorder, and the relationship among anxiety rating scales and those patterns in patients were examined. METHODS: Twenty-three patients with generalized anxiety disorder(AD) and 23 healthy subjects were evaluated by Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety(HRSA)and State- Trait Anxiety Inventory before baseline stressful tasks, Subjective Units of Distress were evaluated just before baseline period, immediately after stressful tasks, at the end of the entire procedure, and psychophysiologic measures, i.e., skin temperature(ST), electromyographic activity(EMG), heart rate(HR), electrodermal response(EDR) during baseline & rest and during two psychologically stressful tasks (mental arithmentic, TM; talk about a stressful event, TT) were also evaluated. RESULTS: 1) AD group showed significantly higher EMG level during rest after stressful tasks and higher HR level during all period except TM compared to control group. 2) AD group showed lower change in the startle response(SR) of ST, in the SR & the recovery response(RR) of EMG during TM, and in the RR of EDR immediately after TM than control group. AD group showed that the RR of EDR was significantly lower than the SR during stressful tasks. 3) We found that there was significantly negative correlation between state anxiety and the RR of EDR after TT in AD group. We also found that there were significantly positive correlations between HRSA score and the SRs of EDR during stressful tasks, and between state anxiety and the SR of EDR during TT. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that patients with generalized anxiety disorder show higher autonomic arousal than healthy subjects and decreased physiologic flexibility or reduced autonomic flexibility.
Anxiety Disorders* ; Anxiety* ; Arousal ; Heart ; Humans ; Korea* ; Life Change Events ; Pliability ; Skin ; Weights and Measures

No abstract available.
Ureter*

No abstract available.
Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus* ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn*

Recent studies have reported that obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms are highly prevalent in schizophrenia, and schizophrenic patients with OC symptoms have a poorer clinical course compared to those without OC symptoms. In spite of many previous case reports, treatment of OC symptoms in schizophrenia has not been systematically studied. We report a patient with chronic schizophrenia who had obsessive symptoms such as bizarre, stereotyped behaviors. Treatment with olanzapine and risperidone, resulted in partial response for his psychotic symptoms, respectively. The obsessive symptoms, however, persisted and fluoxetine was added to the risperidone regimen. After 4 weeks of combination treatment, fluoxetine was titrated up to 80 mg/day and his obsessive symptoms became less in frequency and intensity. After 7 weeks on combination treatment of risperidone and fluoxetine, obsessive symptoms resulted in a significant reduction. On the 20 months of following, he remained in a recovered state and had been treated with risperidone 4 mg/day, and fluoxetine 20 mg/day.
Fluoxetine ; Humans ; Risperidone ; Schizophrenia ; Stereotyped Behavior

OBJECTIVES: Tinnitus is a relatively common complaint of workers who are exposed to noise. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of tinnitus as well as the factors related to the prevalence of tinnitus. METHODS: A cross-sectional audiologic survey was combined with a questionnaire on tinnitus in a stratified random sample of 246 shipyard workers who had long-term exposure to noise. RESULTS: Forty seven had tinnitus, giving a prevalence of 19.1 percent. The tinnitus was the here and now in 44.7 percent of cases, bilateral in 51.1 percent, and caused sleep disturbances in 12.8 percent. The prevalence of tinnitus was highest in shipfitters and those with longer exposure duration.The workers with tunnitus had consistently higher hearing thresholds at both high and low frequencies than those with no tinnitus.The workers with tinnitus had a significantly higher prevalence of hearing disorders such as conductive hearing loss, a C5-dip, and NIHL.Multivariative logistic regression indicated that past history of ear disease, working and military service exposure to noise were independently associated with tinnitus. The adjusted odds ratio estimates for tinnitus were 3.0 times greater (95%CI 1.4-6.4) for the group with a past history of ear diseases,2.3 times greater (95%CI 1.0-5.0) for the military noise exposed group,and 4.5 times greater (95%CI 1.8-11.1) for the working noise exposed group. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide evidence that reports of tinnitus at the time of the annual audiometric testing may be useful in identifying workers at greater risk of developing significant shifts in their hearing thresholds. An awareness of the possible occurrence of tinnitus may encourage workers to cooperate more actively in a company's hearing conservation program.
Ear ; Ear Diseases ; Hearing ; Hearing Disorders ; Hearing Loss, Conductive ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Military Personnel ; Noise* ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Questionnaires ; Tinnitus*

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Laser induced prostatectomy(LIP) has recently been considered as safe alternative to conventional transurethral resection of the prostate(TURP) in the surgical treatment of BPH. However, the value of LIP remains incompletely defined. We herein have performed a prospective study to compare TURP and LIP in treatment efficacy, safety and costs to define the value of LIP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 113 patients with BPH who were candidates of TURP were randomized to undergo TURP or LIP and were adequately followed up for more than 1 year. There were no significant differences in preoperative clinical characteristics between 55 patients who underwent TURP and 58 patients who underwent LIP. For the LIP procedure, Nd:YAG was used in 42 patients and diode laser in 16 patients, respectively. 37 patients were treated by contact LIP only, and 21 with hybrid procedures of contact LIP and noncontact LIP using side firing laser fiber or interstitial laser fiber. Seven patients underwent LIP under local anesthesia at the outpatient department. RESULTS: International prostate symptom score(IPSS) and peak urinary flow rate(Qmax) were significantly improved at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after LIP as well as after TURP. There were no significant difference between TURP group(85.4%) and LIP group(87.9%) in treatment success rate as defined by improvement of IPSS and Qmax as well as patient's content for the surgical outcome. Nine(16.4%) and two(3.6%) of the patients who underwent TURP and none of the patients who LIP underwent developed ignificant bleeding and electrolyte imbalance, respectively. There were no significant difference in postoperative incidence of retrograde ejaculation, infection and urethral stricture between the two groups. Compared to TURP, the LIP procedure required significantly shorter hospitalization(6.8 vs 4.5 days) and catheterization(4.1 vs 2.6 days, all p<0.0l). There was no significant difference in total treatment cost between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: LIP may be comparable to TURP in terms of short term treatment efficacy and cost effectiveness. LIP may be better than TURP in terms of safety and shortened hospitalization and catheterization. Further studies are necessary on long-term outcomes of LIP."
Anesthesia, Local ; Catheterization ; Catheters ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Ejaculation ; Fires ; Health Care Costs ; Hemorrhage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lasers, Semiconductor ; Lip ; Male ; Outpatients ; Prospective Studies ; Prostate* ; Prostatectomy* ; Transurethral Resection of Prostate ; Treatment Outcome ; Urethral Stricture

No abstract available.

We experienced clinical improvement by clozapine(mean maintenance dosage: 100mg/day) and antiparkinsonian medication in 68-year-old man, diagnosed both secondary parkinsonism and delusional disorder. This result supports previous reports that clozapine may effectively treat parkinsonism with psychosis.
Aged ; Clozapine* ; Delusions* ; Humans ; Parkinson Disease, Secondary ; Parkinsonian Disorders* ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia, Paranoid*

OBJECTIVES: Impaired hearing is a prevalent occupational hazard, not only in industry, but also in the armed forces. In military life, noise has unusual characteristics, and constitutes a serious hazard to hearing. The aim of this study was to analyze the hearing threshold data in order to compare the hearing loss among shipyard workers, representing different workers, and a military service background. METHODS: A cross-sectional audiological survey, combined with a questionnaire study, was conducted on a stratified random sample of 440 shipyard workers, with long-term exposure to noise. The employees were divided into four groups, according to their working and military service backgrounds, in relation to their exposure to noise. RESULTS: As expected, the working and military noise exposure group (Group I) had significantly poorer hearing than the other groups. The high frequencies (2-8 kHz) showed the greatest difference in terms of poorer hearing in both ears. The prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) was highest in Group I. A logistic regression analysis was applied to determine the dependence of the NIHL in relation to age, smoking, drinking, working duration, ear protection, past history of ear diseases, and working and military service backgrounds, on the noise exposure. The important factors found to be related to the NIHL, in relation to noise exposure were: age, work duration, and working and military service backgrounds. The adjusted odds ratio estimates for NIHL in the right ear were 4.5 times greater (95% CI 1.7-11.6) for the military noise exposed group, and 7.9 times greater (95% CI 2.0-31.3) for the working noise exposed group than in the controls. The hearing thresholds at the pure-tone average and 4 kHz were significantly increased with age and work duration with both the working and military service backgrounds. CONCLUSIONS: From these results, specific preventive programs were planned, which should be assessed by epidemiological surveillance of the military noise exposed population.
Arm ; Drinking ; Ear ; Ear Diseases ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Military Personnel* ; Noise* ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Smoke ; Smoking