Psychological Characteristics and Changes after the Tattoo Removal

Tattooing has been practised since pre-Christian times, as an object of both fascination and revulsion. In the Present day, body tattoo has been a flourishing and contemporary teen issue. Adolescents have discovered tattoos as a means of self-expression. Due to the external characteristics of the tattoo however, a lot of researchers have shown their interest and done various researches. The examination of the psychological characteristics of the tattooed people revealed that a lot of people have psychological problems, the tattoos revealing the person's deviated image. As a result, several attempts have been made to try and correlate tattoos with the psychiatric diagnoses such as schizophrenia or personality disorder, or with adverse social circumstances such as poverty. The subject of tattoo removal is as old as the history of tattooing itself. Plastic surgeons have witnessed numerous tragic instances where a tattoo has caused hardship, including diminished employment prospects, even loss of love and affection from family and friends and, very commonly, loss of self-esteem. For this reason, the bearers of tattoo often consider the inevitable scarring left by tattoo removal as a preferable alternative. Past techniques of removing tattoos, using corrosive agents or skin graft, have been universally unsuccessful, or certainly less than satisfactory. But, currently laser therapy has been introduced into the market to remove tattoos. As a result, a lot of people have visited hospitals to get tattoos removed. In addition, many of those who had tried to hide the fact that they had tattoos, have been given the opportunity to express their feelings, and rate their psychological statements. This research enables to find the best approach to the person's psychiatric point of view, by objectively observing the person's psychological characteristics and psychological changes after the tattoo removal.

A Survey on The Current Status of Mental Health Act Application / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to find out how the Mental Health Act(MHA) which was enacted in 1995 has been practiced in reality since it was enforced. This study focuses on the following provisions of this law; admission procedures in relation to the protection of patients' rights, discharge procedures in view of the human rights, and the conditions of the restriction of the patients' rights in hospital. METHODS: The questionnaire on "the current state of the application of the MHA" was designed by the authors and was distributed by mail to 213 psychiatric hospitals and general hospitals which operate psychiatric closed wards as of 1999. RESULTS: One hundred ten hospitals responded to the survey(51.6%) and 92.5% of the total admission to the closed ward were by 'admission by agreement of guardian'(article 24 of MHA). It was reported that a written agreement paper of guardian was filed in 98% and the official document(for the article 14 of rule for enforcement of MHA) for legal guardianship was filed in 85 % of these ad-missions respectively. However, the rate of filling the official document is actually below 85% accor-ding to the direct telephone confirmation. Other kind of admissions such as 'admission by the order of head of prefecture(article 25 of MHA) and 'emergency admission'(article 26 of MHA) were not performed except in several psychiatric hospitals. There cases no report regarding the patient's or guardian's appeal for the improvement of patient's right and better treatment and/or disagreement to involuntary admission. Sixty three percent of hospitals reported that the patients were free to use telephone, and 18.1% reported that the official forms to appeal human right violation of the institute were accessible to patients. However, the actual rates are suspected to be lower than the reports by the institutes. Petition for extension of hospital stay requested by the doctor in charge(article 24-3 of MHA) was submitted mostly by psychiatric hospitals, and its rejection rate was 3.7%. CONCLUSION: In case of 'admissions by agreement of guardian', the required qualification for guardianship and the accompanying document to prove the legal guardianship should be amended to make it more realistic. For other kinds of admissions, such as 'emergency admission' and 'admission by order of head of prefecture', admission procedure should be modified to make it more efficient and practical. The rules and regulations for the human rights of psychiatric patients are not observed properly, which needs much improvement. As this study was done by a survey, it has limitation in understanding how the MHA is actually applied and therefore msufficient as data for the use of revising the Act. However, it appears that MHA is not properly observed with problems in applying MHA in practice. The information obtained from this study suggests that extensive study on national level should be done to find out how the MHA is practiced in reality with much discussion on improving the MHA on the basis of its finding.

A Case of Convulsive Seizure Development Induced by Clozapine

The authors described a case of male schizophrenia who developed myoclonic jerk repeatedly and one episode of convulsive seizure during the treatment of clozapine. According to literatures and reported cases, myoclonic jerks induced in a small amount of clozapine may precede and predict the development of a convulsive seizure. Therefore clinicians have to pay attention to the development of a myoclonic jerk during the administration of clozapine. They may decrease the dosage of clozapine step by step at first in the convulsive state, and observe EEG changes of patients frequently.

Korean Standardization of Parent Temperament Questionnaire for Children / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: One of the factors that obstructs active progress of the temperament study in Korea is lack of the standardized assessment tools. Therefore, this study was designed and conducted for the purpose of Korean standardization of "Parental Temperament Questionnaire(PTQ)", which was developed by Thomas and Chess, to assess the temperament of children between the ages of 3 and 7 years through parental questionnaire. METHOD: The samples consisted of 1,175 children who were attending nurseries nationwide. PTQ was translated into Korean language by the authors and distributed to the parents of these children, along with "Toddler Temperament Scale(TTS)" and "Yale Child Inventory(YCI)" which had been previously standardized by different investigators. The reliability and validity of the Korean version of PTQ were tested. RESULTS: Test-retest reliability, item-category correlations and internal consistency of the Korean version of PTQ were generally satisfactory. Correlations between the perceived temperament and the rated temperament were statistically significant in all temperamental categories except distractibility. The correlation between PTQ and TTS was statistically significant in all categories. The 9 categories of PTQ correlated variously with 11 subscales of preschool behavioral assessment of YCI. CONCLUSIONS:The Korean version of PTQ is a standardized tool to assess the temperament of children between ages 3 and 7 years, which will be a useful basic tool for the study of temperament of Korean children.

Historical Backgraound of Community Mental Health

No abstract available.