The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Depressive Symptoms in North Korean Refugees

Objective@#Despite the growing need for psychological programs for North Korean refugees, most psychological interventions for these people lack a verification study that tests their effectiveness. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in North Korean refugees. @*Methods@#Participants included 38 North Korean refugees, of whom 23 participated in simple relaxation and 15 participated in CBT. The Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State (STAI-S), and Impact of Event Scale-Revised were used to evaluate symptoms pre- and post-intervention. @*Results@#Participants had a significant decrease in CES-D scores after treatment (p=0.037). The decrease in CES-D was larger in those who participated in the CBT compared to those in simple relaxation (p=0.023). The superior effects that CBT had on depressive symptoms over simple relaxation were particularly more prominent in those with severe depression (p=0.035). Participants with high levels of anxiety also showed significant decreases in STAI-S scores after treatment, regardless of which type of program they participated in (p=0.023). @*Conclusion@#This preliminary findings suggests that CBT is an effective psychiatric approach in treating depressive symptoms in North Korean refugees, especially for those with a higher degree of depressive symptom.

Education as a Protective Factor Moderating the Effect of Depression on Memory Impairment in Elderly Women

OBJECTIVE: The cognitive reserve theory explicates individual differences observed in the clinical manifestation of dementia despite similar brain pathology. Education, a popular proxy of the cognitive reserve, has been shown to have protective effects delaying the onset of clinical symptoms including memory. This study was conducted to test whether education can moderate the negative effect of depressive mood on memory performance in elderly women residing in the community. METHODS: 29 elderly “unschooled” female (less than 6 years of formal education) and 49 “schooled” female (6 or more years) people were compared with regard to association between depressive mood and verbal memory functioning, which were measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Elderly Verbal Learning Test, respectively. RESULTS: The results showed that completing or receiving more than primary school education significantly reduced the negative association between depressive mood and memory performance. Participants who did not complete primary schooling showed a decline in memory test scores depending on the level of depressive mood; whereas participants who have completed or received more than primary education displayed relatively stable memory function despite varying level of depressive mood. CONCLUSION: Our findings imply that education in early life may have protective effects against memory impairment related to elderly depression.

Vocabulary Knowledge is Not a Predictor of General Cognitive Functioning in Elderly People with Very Low Educational Attainment

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Vocabulary knowledge is used as a representative index of general intelligence, and is regarded as a marker for cognitive reserve in elderly people. However, vocabulary knowledge mainly depends on formal education, hence, it may not fully represent cognitive functioning in elderly people with poor educational backgrounds. Herein, we investigated whether vocabulary knowledge is a measure of general cognitive ability among normal elderly people with few years of formal education. METHODS: The association between vocabulary knowledge and general cognitive functioning was compared between 35 elderly females with very low educational attainment and 68 elderly females with higher education. RESULTS: The vocabulary knowledge was a significant predictor of general cognitive functioning in elderly individuals with more than primary education, even after controlling the effects of age and years of education. However, it was not a significant predictor of general cognitive functioning in elderly individuals with very low educational attainment. CONCLUSIONS: Vocabulary assessment was effective in estimating general cognitive functioning in elderly individuals who received ≥6 years of education. Our findings suggested that vocabulary knowledge may not be an effective proxy of premorbid intelligence or cognitive reserve in people who have not completed elementary schooling.

Carcinogenic Compounds, 2-nitrofluorene and Clonidine Can Modulate the Level of Sirtuin mRNAs Expression in Human Adipose Tissue-derived Stem Cells / 체질인류학회지

Sirtuins (SIRTs) are involved in multiple cellular processes. And they are involved in cellular pathways related aging, cancer, and a variety of cellular functions including cell cycle, DNA repair and proliferation. Also they modulate life span. Stem cells have the ability to self-renew for unlimited proliferation and differentiate into various cell types. It has been a little known that the mutation of undifferentiated stem cells in tissue may result in the development of cancer cells by genotoxic carcinogens. Therefore, this study investigated whether some carcinogenic compounds can modulate the expression of sirtuin mRNA on human adipose-derived stem cells. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) were exposed to genotoxic carcinogenic compound (2-nitrofluorene, 2NF) and non-genotoxic carcinogenic compound (clonidine, CND) for 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours and 96 hours. The expression of SIRT1 mRNA increased on 72 hours. Expressions of SIRT2 and SIRT7 mRNA increased robustly on 48 hours. But all of SIRTs decreased to a level before a treatment of genotoxic compound on adipose-derived stem cells. These results demonstrated that a treatment of genotoxic compound induced the expression of SIRT mRNA only in the short time. But their level returned to untreated cells on 96 hours. They suggest that the possibility that the sirtuins can retard the carcinogenesis of adipose derived stem cells.