OBJECTIVE: The patients of endometriosis may complain of dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, and dyspareunia, but may be asymptomatic. We studied on the correlation between the pain and the psychologic stress, Also, we studied on the correlation between serum CA-l25 levels and the psychologic stress. METHODS: The data was obtained from il7 endometriosis patients. Psychological stress was studied with STAI(Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and BDI(Beck Depression Inventory). We compared the degree of anxiety and depression according to existence of pain and the duration of pain. Also we examed the scores of STAI and BDI according to the level of serum CA-125. RESULTS: The pain group had more depression and anxiety, in comparison to the pain-free group. And the depression and anxiety significantly increased in long-term pain group. There was no correlation between the level of serum CA-125 and the depression,or axiety. CONCLUSION: The pain of endometriosis may play a role of pychological stress to the patients, so it seems to increase depression and anxiety.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Dysmenorrhea ; Dyspareunia ; Endometriosis* ; Female ; Humans ; Interleukin-7 ; Pelvic Pain ; Stress, Psychological*

The authers reported one case of manic episode that occured after retirement in a 63 year old male patient. There was no psychiatric past history and family history. Also there was no abnormal finding on laboratory examination. This patient had received small doses of antidepressants anxiolytic and hypnotic (amitriptyline 10 mg, lorazepam 0.5 mg, triazolam 0.25 mg) to control insomnia since 3 months ago before admission. This patient showed manic symptoms such as grandious idea, expansive and irritable mood, increased psychomotor activity and insomnia after retirement. Pharmacotherapy (lithium and chloropromazine) supportive psychotherapy and family therapy were administered. Excessive motivation for work after retirement and small dose of antidepressant were suspected to trigger a manic episode in this elderly patient. We also reviewed literatures about pathophysiology of elderly manic disorder.
Aged* ; Antidepressive Agents ; Bipolar Disorder ; Drug Therapy ; Family Therapy ; Humans ; Irritable Mood ; Lorazepam ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Motivation ; Psychotherapy ; Retirement* ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; Triazolam

The auther tried to describe the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of senile dementia, especially Alzheimer's dementia (AD). AD is a clinicopathological manifestation, which patients are estimated as about 150 hundred thousands globally in 1997. The etiology of the AD is not cleared but the risk factors of the AD are known as old age, Down's syndrome and genetic factors. The diagnosis of the AD is based on exclusion criteria some years ago. But it is known that there are some distinghed clinical features through the clinical course of AD and physically peculiar features are found using neuroimaging technique. There are some distinguished changes found in the postmortem brain study of AD patients. The auther discussed the AD diagnosis process through AD differential diagnosis, mental status examination, functional global evauation, neuroimaging, electrophysiology, neuropathology and peripheral marker.
Alzheimer Disease ; Brain ; Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential* ; Down Syndrome ; Electrophysiology ; Humans ; Neuroimaging ; Risk Factors

Among the elderly, affective disorders constitute the most commenly encountered psychiatric illness. Evaluation of Mood in the elderly patients is important because of uniqueness of senile depression. Depression in the elderly may present with various clinical symptoms such as chronic pain, multiple somatic complaints, or even dementia (pseudodementia). Also the seriousness of depression in the elderly is shown by the increase in and success of suicidal attempts among this group. About 15% of the total deaths of patients with affective disorder are due to suicide. Although some elderly depressed individuals presently atypically, most can be diagnosed according to the Washington University research criteria, which form the basis for the DSM-IV. In view of the effective therapies available for depression, it is especially crucial to make the diagnosis and proceed with treatment. The auther also reviewed rating scales of depression.
Aged ; Chronic Pain ; Dementia ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Humans ; Mood Disorders ; Suicide ; Washington ; Weights and Measures

It is sufficient to justify distinguishing age-appropriate and age-inappropriate forms of age-related memory decline. The former, of which AAMI is an example, represents a normal age-related phenomenon, whereas the latter, the true descendent of benign senescent forgetfulness, is by definition abnormal and possibly, pathological. Whether age-inappropriate forgetfulness is progressive, whether it can be distinguished from other concepts of mild cognitive decline by virtue of being specific to memory, and whether it is qualitatively different from normal memory or merely worse is not yet certain. The prevalence of age-inappropriate forgetfulness is undetermined, but it is certainly less common than AAMI. The construct of AAMI was introduced by an NIMH work group. It was the group's declared intention to facilitate communication and stimulate research into late-life memory loss, particularly its treatment. Completely satisfactory diagnostic criteria do not yet exist for AAMI. Improved criteria would take an individual's overall level of intellectual functioning or educational background into account when setting the standard against which to rate memory, distinguish age-appropriate from age-inappropriate decline. AAMI differs from BSF in several points. First, the AAMI criteria define impairment with respect to healthy young adult levels, not to those of the older individual's age peers as was implied in the description of BSF. Second, the term AAMI is non-specific with regard to etiology and does not necessarily imply that the disorder is non-progressive. Thus, patients whose memory impairment is subsequently shown to be the earliest stage of a dementing illness are not necessarily excluded from the category of AAMI, and it is sensible to ask how often AAMI is, in fact, a dementia prodrome.
Aging ; Dementia ; Humans ; Intention ; Memory Disorders ; Memory* ; National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) ; Prevalence ; Virtues ; Young Adult

The dysplastic nevus is a rare form of melanocytic nevus in Korean people. During the past 5 years the authors experienced 5 cases in the St. Mary's Hospital and Kang Nam St. Mary's Hospital. The criteria and the histologic findings of dysplastic nevi are debated in the western literature. Clinically, all cases were greater than 5 mm in size with ill defined irregular borders and irregularly distributed pigmentation. Histopathologically, all cases showed numerous discrete individual nests of melanocytes located in the dermoepidermal junction and the papillary dermis and were characterized by extension of dermoepidermal component of the nevus at the "shoulder" beyond the dermal component of the nevus. There was no cytologic atypia of nevus cells in all cases. Our cases lacked personal or family history of malignant melanoma. Therefore, we believe our cases are nonfamilial, sporadic and benign nevi with no prognostic significance. A brief review of the literature and a discussion on the term "dysplastic" and clinicopathologic correlation are made.

Segmentally distributed cutaneous eruptions and neuralgia are common manifestations of herpes zoster. However, motor loss is another aspect of this manifestation, which is less well known and considered a rare finding. In many cases the loss of motor function may be easily overlooked because the pain is the more prominent feature and the weakness probably goes unrecognized with only a mild impairment of the motor function. We experienced a 71-year-old male patient with a herpes zoster-related motor paralysis of right arm whose clinical features of a weak limb mimicked other spinal motor diseases and confirmed motor involvement using electromyographic (EMG) and motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) studies.
Aged ; Arm ; Extremities* ; Herpes Zoster* ; Humans ; Male ; Neural Conduction ; Neuralgia ; Paralysis*

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluated the difference of depressive symptoms and attention between estrogen user and non-user in postmenopausal women. METHODS: 30 Estrogen users and 30 non-users were participated in this study. They were all menopausal for at least 1 year and have 12 or more education years. We used BDI(Beck Depression Inventory), digit span and digit symbol to evaluate depressive symptoms and attention in both groups. We also measured the plasma estradiol level and identified the correlation between estradiol level and BDI, digit span and digit symbol. RESULTS: The demographic data was not different between both groups. Estrogen users scored higher than non-users in digit span(forward) and lower than non-users in BDI. The correlation between estradiol level BDI, digit span and digit symbol was not significant. CONCLUSION: Estrogen replacement therapy was effective in alleviation depressive symptoms but ineffective in improving attention in postmenopausal women.
Depression* ; Education ; Estradiol ; Estrogen Replacement Therapy* ; Estrogens* ; Female ; Humans ; Plasma

OBJECTIVES: This study was aimed to investigate and compare the life event stress unit, coping strategy and other risk factors in coronary artery disease patients who visited Cardiovascular Division of Dept. of Internal Medicine Chung-Ang University Hospital. METHODS: Review of medical chart, semi-structured interview, Scale of Life Events and Multidemensional Coping Scale were applied to patients group(No.=26) who were diagnosed as cardiovascular disease at Cardiovascular Division Dept. of Internal Medicine, Chung-Ang University Hospital and control group(No.=37) who were screened as normal at Health Screening Center. The data were processed by T test and Chi-square test using SPSS version 7.0. RESULTS: 1) The scores of life event stress of patient group were significantly higher(372.34+/-172.81) than those of normal control group(228.27+/-116.37)(p<0.05). 2) In the aspect of coping strategies, the patients' group was significantly higher than normal control group at the fatalism, accomodation and self-criticism(p<0.05), while in the normal control group, the positive comparison and religious seeking tended to be higher than in the patients group, with no statistical significance. 3) Comparing other risk factors of coronary artery disease, the patients group was higher than the normal control group at the incidence of diabetes, hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia and hypertension(p<0.05). But the incidence of smoking, hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia did not differ significantly. CONCLUSIONS: The life event stress was found to be one of the risk factors of coronary artery disease. The passive-negative coping strategies, such as the fatalism, accomodation and selfcriticism, were also another risk factors.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Incidence ; Internal Medicine ; Mass Screening ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether living with spouse contributes to cognitive decline and depressive symptom among elderly people. METHODS: 939 participants were recruited through Keum-Cheon center for dementia in Seoul. All subjects were assessed using the Korean version of Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE-K), Korean version of Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease (CERAD-K) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Furthermore, epidemiological factors (age, sex, education year, and characteristics of family) assessed to find correlation with cognitive decline. RESULTS: Controlling for gender, age, and education year, living with spouse was significantly associated with cognitive decline (B=-0.486, S.E=0.203, Wald=0.331, Exp (B)=1.107, p=0.01). Living with spouse group has lower depressive symptom, compared to living without spouse group (F=14.6, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Correctly, our results suggest that spouse absent state may accelerate cognitive decline and depression. Further, elderly people living alone should be closely monitored for both depression and cognitive impairment.
Aged ; Alzheimer Disease ; Dementia ; Depression ; Humans ; Spouses