BACKGROUND: The internet has a great amount of medical information for patients, but because no standards exist regarding the publication of medical literature on the internet, the quality of the internet information is quite variable. The purpose of our study was to assess the content and ethics of information on epilepsy, which is available on the Korean internet. METHODS: The search word "epilepsy" or "seizure" was entered into the five most commonly utilized Korean internet search engines. The web sites were divided into the higher or lower rank site on the basis of popularity ranking, and then evaluated by using both ethic and content value scales. The comparison between two groups was analyzed. RESULTS: Twenty eight epilepsy web sites were identified and divided into two equal groups. The average scores of ethic and content value scales were below half of the total score in the higher rank group as well as the lower. The score of higher rank group was not different statistically to that of lower rank group in both value scales. In addition, the score in the epilepsy specialists group was not higher than that in the non-specialists as well. DISCUSSION: The internet is easily accessible source of medical information including epilepsy. Moreover, because lots of epileptic patients are using the web for obtaining the information, the web information should be standardized. The results of our study show that clinicians should not recommend the epilepsy web site as a source of information for epileptic patients unless the epilepsy websites have been evaluated and assessed.
Epilepsy ; Ethics ; Humans ; Internet ; Publications ; Search Engine ; Specialization ; Weights and Measures

Objective: A growing body of evidence reports on the effect of different types of childhood abuse on the structural and functional architecture of the brain. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the differences in cortical thickness according to specific types of childhood abuse between patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: A total of 61 patients with MDD and 98 HCs were included in this study. All participants underwent T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, and the occurrence of childhood abuse was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. We investigated the association between whole-brain cortical thickness and exposure to any type of childhood abuse and specific type of childhood abuse in the total sample using the FreeSurfer software. Results: No significant difference was reported in the cortical thickness between the MDD and HC groups nor between the “any abuse” and “no abuse” groups. Compared to no exposure to childhood sexual abuse (CSA), exposure to CSA was significantly associated with cortical thinning in the left rostral middle frontal gyrus (p=0.00020), left (p=0.00240), right fusiform gyri (p=0.00599), and right supramarginal gyrus (p=0.00679). Conclusion Exposure to CSA may lead to cortical thinning of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is deeply involved in emotion regulation, to a greater extent than other types of childhood abuse.

Objective: The International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS) is a semiquantitative clinical scale for ataxia that is widely used in numerous countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Korean-translated version of the ICARS. Methods: Eighty-eight patients who presented with cerebellar ataxia were enrolled. We investigated the construct validity using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We also investigated the internal consistency using Cronbach’s α and intrarater and interrater reliability using intraclass correlation coefficients. Results: The Korean-translated ICARS showed satisfactory construct validity using EFA and CFA. It also revealed good interrater and intrarater reliability and showed acceptable internal consistency. However, subscale 4 for assessing oculomotor disorder showed moderate internal consistency. Conclusion This is the first report to investigate the validity and reliability of the Korean-translated ICARS. Our results showed excellent construct and convergent validity. The reliability is also acceptable.