OBJECTIVES: To examine emotional and psychological characteristics associated with suicide attempts in depressed patients. METHODS: A sample of 37 inpatients diagnosed with major depressive disorder or depressive disorder NOS was divided into two groups : lifetime suicide attempters(N=15 ; 40.54%), non-attempters(N=22 ; 59.46%). Beck Depression Scale(BDI), Beck Anxiety Scale(BAI), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale(HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale(HARS), and MMPI-2 were used to evaluate symptoms severity and psychological characteristics. RESULTS: Suicide attempters scored higher on the BDI though there were no group differences on the HDRS and on the both anxiety scales. Also they showed higher scores on the F, Fb, Pa, RC1, DEP, HEA, PK, AAS among MMPI-2 subscales. Our findings suggest that suicide attempters among depressed patients undergo more severe subjective distress and difficulties in adjustment than non-attempters. Also they were more hostile to others and showed lower trust. Lastly, they showed more somatic complaints and substance related problems. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that suicide attempters among depressed patients have distinct emotional and psychological characteristics. MMPI-2 would be helpful to assess suicidal risk of depressed patients.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder ; Depressive Disorder, Major ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Pyrrolidines ; Suicide ; Weights and Measures

All living organisms are destined to die. Cells, the core of those living creatures, move toward the irresistible direction of death. The question of how to die is critical and is very interesting. There are various types of death in life, including natural death, accidental death, questionable death, suicide, and homicide. The mechanisms and molecules involved in cell death also differ depending on the type of death. The dysenteric amoeba, E. histolytica, designated by the German zoologist Fritz Schaudinn in 1903, has the meaning of tissue lysis; i.e., tissue destroying, in its name. It was initially thought that the amoebae lyse tissue very quickly leading to cell death called necrosis. However, advances in measuring cell death have allowed us to more clearly investigate the various forms of cell death induced by amoeba. Increasing evidence has shown that E. histolytica can cause host cell death through induction of various intracellular signaling pathways. Understanding of the mechanisms and signaling molecules involved in host cell death induced by amoeba can provide new insights on the tissue pathology and parasitism in human amoebiasis. In this review, we emphasized on the signaling role of NADPH oxidases in reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent cell death by pathogenic E. histolytica.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the fatigue of the mothers of the hospitalized children's mothers in descriptive study. METHOD: Two hundred eighty three mothers who take care of the hospitalized children in three University hospitals were enrolled from June, 1 to October, 30, 2003. Data were collected using a questionnaire titled "Symptom Table on Fatigue Perception" designed by the Fatigue Research Committee of Japan, consisted of a total 30 items categorized into three sub-dimensions: the physical, the psychological and the neuro-sensory. SPSS was used for the analysis of data with 0.05 of significance. RESULT: 1) The mean average fatigue score of subjects was 1.94(SD:.48): the physical fatigue revealed the highest value with a mean of 2.19(SD:.57), followed by psychological fatigue with a mean score of 1.85(SD:.52), neuro-sensory fatigue with a mean of 1.79(SD:.51). 2) With the respect to the general characteristics of hospitalized children and mothers, there were statistically significant differences in the mothers' fatigue perception by the child sex(t=-2.697, p=.008), the character of child(F=9.032, p=.000), the child condition compared to pre-hospitalization(F=3.523, p=.031), with or without support in domestic households(t=-1.981, p=.049), the amount of sleeping time(t=2.704, p=.007), and with or without of night-time sleep disturbance because of the child hospitalization(t=2.082, p=.038). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that health care professional need to be aware of the persistent presence of the maternal fatigue related to the child hospitalization and the factors worsen the degree of the fatigue.
Child ; Child, Hospitalized ; Delivery of Health Care ; Fatigue* ; Hospitalization ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Japan ; Mothers* ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationships among mother's perception of her own newborn, her caring-confidence level, and her child-rearing attitude; and to provide data for developing effective nursing education programs on maternal newborn care. METHOD: Explorative survey questionnaires were completed by 159 married mothers of newborns from November 2003 to March 2004. Data were analyzed using SPSS/Win 10.0 by t-test and Pearson's Correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The mean scores of the mother's perception of her own newborn, her caring-confidence level, and her child-rearing attitude were .26, 3.13, and 3.43 respectively. There was a positive correlation between mother's perception of her own newborn and her child-rearing attitude. There was a significant correlation between mothers caring-confidence level and her child-rearing attitude. Score of caring-confidence was significantly different depending on the availability of helper and history of delivery. CONCLUSION: Availability of helper and history of delivery significantly affected mothers caring-confidence. This in turn, along with mothers perception of her own newborn, enhanced mothers child-rearing attitude. Thus, an effective education for mothers should include these factors.
Education ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Mothers* ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to understand the caring experience of families with terminal cancer patients. METHOD: This was designed to be an inductive and descriptive study. Forty-seven families with terminal cancer patients were interviewed in depth and collected data were examined through content analysis. RESULT: The main categories of difficulties found in this study were "suffering of patient", "emotional suffering of family", "bereavement of patient", "difficulties in coping", "problems in treatment", "incurable situation", "family problems", "relationship with other people", "economic problems", "spiritual problems", "problems in the future", "informing patients of their condition", "preparing death", "emotional unstability", "meaninglessness", "unkindness of medical teams", "poor environment for treatment", "difficulties in hospital environment" and "economic burden". CONCLUSION: The main point found from this result was that families taking care of terminal cancer patients are suffering emotionally from watching the patients' pains and had difficulties in coping with the patients' situation and treatment. In addition, they had negative experiences in medical teams attitude and hospital environment. This result can be used as an important guide for nurses to assess families' needs in the terminal care setting.
Humans ; Terminal Care

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate automated pressure-controlled discography (APCD) findings, to calculate the elastance of intervertebral discs, and to assess the relationship between the calculated elastance and disc degeneration. METHODS: APCD was performed in 19 patients. There were a total of 49 intervertebral discs treated. Following intradiscal puncture, a dye was constantly injected and the intradiscal pressure was continuously measured. The elastance of the intervertebral disc was defined as unit change in intradiscal pressure per fractional change in injected dye volume. Disc degeneration was graded using a modified Dallas discogram scale. RESULTS: The mean elastance was 43.0 +/- 9.6 psi/mL in Grade 0, 39.5 +/- 8.3 psi/mL in Grade 1, 30.5 +/- 22.3 psi/mL in Grade 2, 30.5 +/- 22.3 psi/mL in Grade 3, 13.2 +/- 8.3 psi/mL in Grade 4 and 6.9 +/- 3.8 psi/mL in Grade 5. The elastance showed significant negative correlation with the degree of degeneration (R2 = 0.529, p = 0.000). CONCLUSION: APCD liberates the examiner from the data acquisition process during discography. This will likely improve the quality of data and the reliability of discography. Elastance could be used as an indicator of disc degeneration.
Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration ; Low Back Pain ; Punctures

PURPOSE: This study is to identify the present situation of children's hospice and to find the developing strategies for child hospice system in Korea. METHOD: The data was collected from both literatures and the recent data provided by the government. The direction of future of children's hospice cared in Korea was predicted based on the literature analysis and the report and policy of government. RESULT: In Korea, the system of the child hospice is not processing. There are the importance differences between children and adult in that the characteristics and approach of the hospice care. All medical personnel and the people related to hospice care including children and their family should be recognized the necessity of the children's hospice care. The following strategies is needed for setting up the child hospice: the principles and standards, recognizing of the necessities, developing of educational program for the specialist and the systemic children's hospice program, and the organization of child hospice. CONCLUSION: Directions suggested from this study have the importance of child hospice to establish and develop well in Korea for both children with life-threatening disease and their families.
Adult ; Child ; Hospice Care* ; Hospices* ; Humans ; Korea* ; Specialization ; Child Health

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between self-esteem and meaning of life in higher grade elementary school students. METHODS: Four hundred eighty four elementary school students in their 4 ~ 6th-grade at S, G and C City were recruited by convenient sampling. Data were collected from August to October, 2008 using a self-reported questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by the SPSS/WIN 12.0 program with mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Duncan's test, and Pearson's correlation. RESULTS: The average score of meaning of life was 3.07 +/- 0.38 and that of self-esteem was 3.43 +/- 0.62. There were significant differences in self-esteem according to variables region and religion, and in meaning of life scores according to variables region, grade, sex and religion. There was a significant positive correlation between self-esteem and meaning of life. CONCLUSION: Self-esteem and meaning of life should be considered as important factors for healthy development in the elementary school period. Self-esteem should be considered as a main content in developing programs for finding meaning of life for higher grade elementary school students.
Humans ; Religion and Sex ; Self Concept ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the lived experience of adolescents with physical handicap by means of the Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The participants were 15 adolescents, 10-19 years old, who were experiencing physical handicap. Significant statements from data were extracted. From these formulated meanings, 27 themes, 10 clusters of theme and 4 categories were constructed. Major theme clusters that were emerged from the analysis are 'denial', 'despair', 'social isolation', 'being despised', 'not being treated as a member of society', 'getting the power in love around people', 'accepting the physical handicap', 'feeling the joy and one's life worth living', 'depending on the religion', and 'the feeling of achievement by the effort and the service'. In order to help the adolescents with physical handicap overcome their difficulty and cope to the social environment, nurses need to understand the essential theme clusters of the experience of adolescents with physical disability.
Adolescent* ; Humans ; Love ; Social Environment ; Child Health

The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the lived experience of adolescents with physical handicap by means of the Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The participants were 15 adolescents, 10-19 years old, who were experiencing physical handicap. Significant statements from data were extracted. From these formulated meanings, 27 themes, 10 clusters of theme and 4 categories were constructed. Major theme clusters that were emerged from the analysis are 'denial', 'despair', 'social isolation', 'being despised', 'not being treated as a member of society', 'getting the power in love around people', 'accepting the physical handicap', 'feeling the joy and one's life worth living', 'depending on the religion', and 'the feeling of achievement by the effort and the service'. In order to help the adolescents with physical handicap overcome their difficulty and cope to the social environment, nurses need to understand the essential theme clusters of the experience of adolescents with physical disability.
Adolescent* ; Humans ; Love ; Social Environment ; Child Health