Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Psychosis / 대한정신분열병학회지

There has been increasing interest in the psychosocial treatment of psychosis based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which has the primary aim of helping people more effectively engage in their lives guided by their values. The approach includes various techniques to change one’s relationship to private experiences, such as hallucination and delusion, rather than rectifying the contents of these experiences. Using the six core processes of the ACT model (hexaflex) tailored to the characteristics of people with psychosis may help alleviate their distress from the symptoms and shape pragmatic value-consistent behaviors. This review introduces the ACT model of psychosis and illustrates the specific ways of applying ACT to people with psychotic experiences.

Examining Patterns of Polypharmacy in Bipolar Disorder: Findings from the REAP-BD, Korea

Based on Korean data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Pattern for Bipolar Disorder, this study tried to present prescription patterns in biopolar disorder (BD) and its associated clinical features. Based on the information obtained from the study with structured questions, the tendency of prescription pattern was studied and analyzed. Polypharmacy was predominant, including simple polypharmacy in 51.1% and complex polypharmacy in 34.2% of patients. Subjects associated with simple or complex polypharmacy were significantly younger, had higher inpatient settings, a larger portion of onset with manic episode, a shorter duration of untreated illness, a shorter duration of current episode, were more overweight, used less antidepressants and used more anxiolytics. These findings can suggest higher polypharmacy rate in more severe BD and highlight the necessity of monitoring the weight of subjects with polypharmacy.

Smartphone Addiction / 대한내과학회지

Smartphones have significantly changed our lives and become a digital lifestyle hub. However, uncontrolled smartphone usage has created a new issue in global health, including a range of mental health concerns. Previous studies have proposed that excess use of a smartphone that interferes with daily life should be called “smartphone addiction”, which has similar core features to substance-related disorders (substance addiction) and known behavioral addictions. The aim of this review was to add to our understanding of smartphone addiction by presenting an overview of the research field.

The Relationship among Psychopathology, Cognitive Function, Insight and Quality of Life in Elderly Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the association with psychopathology, cognitive function, insight and quality of life (QOL) in elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia over age 55. METHODS: 103 schizophrenic patients over age 55 with illness duration over 10 years, are enrolled in a cross-sectional study. The subjects were assessed by the Korean version of 4th Revision of Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale, Korean Version of Scales to Assessment Unawareness of Mental Disorder, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the cognitive function battery designed for this study. Multiple regression stepwise selection models were executed to identify the relations among variables, and the contributing factors to QOL. RESULTS: Among schizophrenic patients with lower illness-severity with PANSS total score below 75, higher PANSS positive subscale score and lower number of hospitalization were related to lower QOL. Among patients with higher illness-severity with PANSS total score of 75 and over, higher PANSS general psychopathology subscale score, better intelligence, better delayed recall function, worse attention, better awareness of medication effect and later onset were related to lower QOL. CONCLUSION: Results of our study suggest that improvement in positive symptom and general psychopathology could increase the QOL in elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia over age 55. And the management which could improve attention, awareness of need for medication would attribute the QOL.