The Relationship of Spiritual Well-being and Anxiety, Depression and Quality of Life in Active Old Age / 영남의대학술지

BACKGROUND: This study assessed the mental health, in order to determine the effect of the subject's spiritual well-being on anxiety depression and quality of life in active old people, and to verify whether or not spiritual well-being is a new factor for comprehensive health in old people. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study selected 184 old people aged over 65 years. The subject's spiritual well-being was assessed by the Korean Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWS) that was composed of the Religious Well-being Scale (RWS) and Existential Well-being Scale (EWS). The quality of life was assessed using Quality of Life Scale, which was composed of the subjective feeling about life and the subject's satisfaction of their whole life. RESULTS: Among the psychosocial factors, the educational level and physical health, showed significant discriminative score in the SWS. A prior medical history was associated with a significantly low SWS score. Satisfaction with life was associated with a significantly high SWS score. These factors a showed significant discriminative EWS score rather than a RWS. Among the religion factors, the satisfaction with their religion showed significant difference in the SWS. The SWS score especially the EWS affected the anxiety and depression of the Korean Combined Anxiety and Depression Scale (CADS). The subjective feeling of life score was associated with a significantly EWS low score and the subject's satisfaction with their whole life score was associated with a significantly high EWS score. CONCLUSION: Spiritual well being has significantly effects on anxiety depression and the quality of life in active old age people, and the subject; s spiritual well-being might be a new factor for assessing health in old age.

The Effect of Spiritual Well-being on the Mental Health of the Cho-Sun Tribal Women Residing in P.R. of China / 영남의대학술지

BACKGROUND: Spirituality has been an important part of Transpersonal Psychology and is believed to have a large effect on the mental health because it has been systematized. The aim of this study was to determine the level of spiritual disposition on human beings along with its effects on one's mental health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study targeted 400 women residing in Youn-Gil city of JiLin Prov., which is a district of the Cho-Sun tribe in China. Their spiritual well-being was studied using the Spiritual Well-being Scale-Korean Version. The spiritual well-being scale consists of 2 sub-scales of religious well-being and existential well-being. The study was evaluated using a lie scale, psychotic trend, and a combined anxiety-depression scale. The results were considered to be factors of one's mental health. The correlation between the spiritual well-being and each tendency was analyzed by regression analysis. RESULTS: The total score of the Cho-Sun tribal women according to the spiritual well-being scale was 68.29 which was much less than the 100.65 of Korean Christian women. There was no significant correlation between the spiritual well-being and the Lie trend. However, it was found that 86% (344) of Cho-Sun tribal women scored above 70 in the Lie trend with a mean score of 74.57 which is higher than normal populations. Regarding the correlation between the spiritual well-being and psychotic trend, the psychotic trend became significantly higher when the religious well-being was at a high level. On the other hand, the psychotic trend became significantly lower when the existential well-being was at a high level. Regarding the correlation between the spiritual well-being and anxiety, the anxiety was significantly higher when the religious well-being was at a high level. However, the anxiety level was significantly low when the existential well-being was at a high level. Regarding the correlation between the spiritual well-being and depression, the depression level was somewhat significantly high when the religious well-being was at a high level. However, the depression level was significantly low when the existential well-being was at a high level. CONCLUSION: This study evaluated the effects of spiritual well-being on a person's mental health among Cho-Sun tribal women in Youn-Gil city of JiLIn Prov., P.R. of China. The results found that the religious well-being, which is a sub-scale of spiritual well-being, had negative effects while the existential well-being had positive effects on the mental health. These results proved that a person's religious disposition had negative effects on their mental health in a communitarian society.

The Clinical Characteristics of Child and Adolescent with Attention Deficit or Hyperactivity / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: This study is to understand basic clinical characteristics, behavior symptoms, psychopathology, intelligence and neuropsychiatric functions of ADHD. METHODS: This study examined 1,432 outpatients with attention deficit or hyperactivity under 19 who had visited Yeung Nam University Psychiatric Center from July 01, 1998 to June 20, 2001 with K-ABC, K-WISC (or K-WAIS), K-PIC, ADDESHV, ACTeRS, CAP, SNAP, CPT and WCST RESULTS: 41.2% of the whole outpatients who visited clinics were diagnosed as having ADHD. 37.5% of the patients with ADHD had ADHD-I;59.8% had ADHD-C;and 2.7% had ADHD-HI. The proportion of males to females was 5.6 to 1. Females were a little younger and had generally lower functional standards including intellectual level than males (p<.001). The psychopathology through K-PIC showed that 23.8% of the subjects had psychopathologies related to language development and 18.5-26.5% of the subjects had other psychopathologies related to performance development, anxiety, delinquency, psychosis, autism. In behavioral symptom checklist, general difference was confirmed (p<.001), and ADHD subtype was differentiated by behavioral symptom checklist, especially ADDES-HV and ACTeRS (p<.05). In intellectual level, children with ADHD showed significantly lower IQ than normal children (p<.001). It raised questions that there can be problems not only in the course of testing IQs of children with ADHD but in development and display their intellectual abilities. And children with ADHD showed significantly poorer attention and performance abilities than normal children (p<.05). CONCLUSION: With above results, this study could confirm that ADHD-C had the largest percentage among subtypes of ADHD. And though the proportion of female patients was low, their functional standards were generally lower than male patients. Besides co-existent psychiatric diseases can be ignored in diagnosing ADHD. Though specific differences among subtypes have not been discovered, children with ADHD showed significantly lower functional standards such as IQ, attention, and performance abilities than normal children.

The Predictive Factors of Treatment Effects in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder / 대한정신약물학회지

This study examined 60 children with ADHD through K-ABC, ADDES-HV, ADD-H comprehensive teacher's rating scale (ACTeRS), CAP, SNAP, Academic Performance rating scale, K-PIC, CPT and WCST in order to estimate the effects of methylphenidate, and find out various factors which can influence on treatment responses and predictive factors of treatment. Boys showed better improvement in impulsiveness of behavior symptoms than girls, but girls showed better improvement in trials to completed the first category in WCST. In the aspect of age, the lower graders (age 7-9) showed improvement in sequential processing ability of intelligence but the higher graders (age 10-12) showed deterioration. In the aspect of sub-categories of ADHD, children with mixed type who had been worse in attention deficit and behavior symptoms in pretreatment state, showed significantly higher improvement than children with predominantly inattentive type in every scopes of behavior symptom check list. And in clusters of K-PIC, after treatments the group those who had have more anxiety or depression showed better improvement in omission error in CPT. In the aspect of intelligence level, children with average intelligence showed better improvement in impulsiveness and impulse control than the rests. In the aspect of executive functions, the less omission errors in CPT one made, the better improvement in attention and academic ability he showed. And the less perseverative response in WCST one had, the better improvement in hyperactivity he showed however his simultaneous processing abilities were deteriorated. With these results, this study confirms that methylphenidate is effective in behavior symptoms, academic performance, intelligence and various performance abilities of children with ADHD including attention and response control. In the cases of the children with severe ADHD symptoms, especially behavioral disinhibition and the children with mixed type of ADHD, it is considered useful to predict the results of treatments.

The Characteristics of Executive Dysfunctions and Changes after Mehylphenidate Treatment in ADHD Children / 대한정신약물학회지

The characteristics and changes after methylphenidate treatment of executive functions were conducted. Forty elementary school children, over 85 in intelligence quotient, were selected as experimental group. They are diagnosed to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). 40 normal control group were also selected. For comparing of executive functions, ADHD subjects were tested executive functions before and 4 weeks after methylphenidate. Normal control group were also tested. Several behavioral checklists were used, and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Conners Continuous Performance Test, Stop Signal Task, Trail-Making Test (patr B), and Maze test were used. The executive functions and intelligence of ADHD were generally lower than normal control group. On CPT, ADHD showed significantly lower performances in commissions, hit reaction time standard errors, variability of standard errors, and attentiveness. On SST, ADHD presented significantly lower performance in probability of inhibit, stop signal reaction time, Z Score of relative finishing time, Mean delay time on each block, and primary standard deviation. On WCST, ADHD had meaningfully lower performance in total corrects, total errors, nonperseverative errors, completed category, and trials to 1st category completed. After medication, intelligence was not changed, but simultaneous processing ability was improved significantly. And the behavioral problems were improved, but still had differences comparing to control. Commission of Conners' CPT, all aspects of SST and total corrects of WCST were improved.

A Study on Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version of Spiritual Well Being Scale / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: The study is to test reliability and validity of the Korean version of spiritual well being scale which is devised by Paloutzian and Ellison. METHODS: The spiritual well being scale was translated into Korean by two psychiatrist and 131 Christians rated the Korean version of spiritual well being scale. For test-retest reliability, 80 telephone counsellor trainee rated it again after one week interval and statistical analysis was done with the collected data. RESULT: Correlation coefficients were regarded to have good test-retest reliability. Cronbach alpha value of total score, and religious well being subscale and existential well being subscale were significantly high. Among demographic factors, health(healthier) factors, is related with significantly high score of spiritual well-being scale(SWS). Period(over 30year) of christianity showed significant discriminative score of SWS. Factor analysis for validity showed 5 subgroups which were correlated with religious well-being scale(RWS) and existential well-being scale(EWS). 1st subgroup of RWS is related with educational factor, 2nd subgroup of RWS is related with health foactor, 3rd subgroup of RWS is related with personal relationship with God especially, 4th subgroup of EWS is related with health factor and 5th subgroup of EWS is related with reality oriented view. CONCLULSION: The Korean version of SWS which is consisted of RWS and EWS was proved to be a reliable and valid instrument of assessment of spirituality.

A Study on Anxiety-Depression in College Freshmen / 영남의대학술지

The authors studied anxiety-depression using New Anxiety-Depression Scale (NADS), in the subjects of 3,499male and 1,335 female college freshmen of Yeungnam University. The authors collected the reports of NADS during the periods from January to February, 1986, and applied ANOVA and t-test on anxiety-depression scores in order to compare them between various psychosocial factors, and sexes. The results are as follows: There was significant difference in the mean averages of total scores between male and female students: male students scored 31.49±6.57 female students scored 33.37±6.84 (p<0.001) The anxiety-depression scores relating to the items of sleep disturbance, apprehension, decreased libido, and fatigue were relatively higher in both groups. Ninety-nine male students (2.8%) showed seriously high degree anxiety-depression scores of 50 or higher, while forty female students (3.0%) showed the same scores. There was a strong tendency toward higher anxiety-depression scores in the students who were dissatisfied with their home atmosphere, colleges, departments and familiarity of parents, and those who had pessimistic views of self image in the past, present, or future in both groups (p<0.001). The students whose maturation locations were below city level, showed higher level of anxiety-depression scores in both groups (p<0.05). NADS and SAS, SDS, and Leeds scale were correlated significantly in 0.64, 0.61, and 0.77 of correlation coefficient.

A Study on Anxiety-Depression in College Freshmen / 영남의대학술지

The authors studied anxiety-depression using New Anxiety-Depression Scale (NADS) in the subjects of 2,564 male and 1,252 female college freshmen of Yeungnam University. The authors collected the reports of NADS during the periods from January to February 1987, and applied ANOVA and t-test on anxiety depression scores in order to compare them between various psychosocial factors and sexes. The results are as follows: There was significant difference in the mean average of total scores between male and female students: male students scored 33.41±8.76 and female students scored 35.34±9.02 (P<0.001). The anxiety-depression scores relating to the items of sleep disturbance, apprehension, facial flushing and fatigue were relatively scored higher in both groups. One hundred and thirty nine male students (5.4%) showed seriously higher degree of anxiety-depression scores of 50 or more, while eighty eight female students (7.0%) showed the same scores. There was a strong tendency toward higher anxiety-depression scores in the students who were dissatisfied with their home atmosphere, colleges, departments, familiarity of parents and those who had pessimistic views of self image in the past, presents and future in both groups (P<0.001).

A Study on Paranoid Ideation & Obsession in College Freshmen / 영남의대학술지

The authors studied paranoid ideation and obsession, using Derogatis' SCL-90, in the subjects of 2,564 male and 1,252 female college freshmen of Yeungnam University. The authors collected the reports of Self-Rating Paranoid ideation and Obsession Scale during the periods from January to February, 1987, and applied ANOVA and t-test on paranoid ideation and obsession scores in order to compare them between various psychosocial factors, and sexes. The results are as follows: 1. There was not significant difference in the mean averages of total paranoid ideation scores between male and female students: male students scored 4.16±3.09, female students scored 4.16±2.91. 2. High scored items were delusion and suspiciousness. 3. Fifty-nine male students (2.3%) showed high paranoid ideation scores of 12 or higher, while twenty-six female students (2.1%) showed the same scores. 4. There was strong tendency toward higher paranoid ideation scores in the students who were dissatisfied with their home atmosphere, college, department and familiarity of parents and those who had pessimistic view of self in the past, present or future in both group (respectively P<0.001). The male students who believed protestantism showed higher level of paranoid ideation scores (P<0.01). The male students who attended the department of fine art showed higher level of paranoid ideation scores (P<0.05). 5. There was significant difference in the mean averages of total obsession scores between male and female students (P<0.05): male students scored 10.40±5.43, female students scored 10.75±5.02 6. High scored items were perfectionism, indecisiveness, inattention & obsessive thoughts. 7. Thirty-eight male students (1.6%) showed high obsession scores of 25 or higher, while fifteen female students (1.2%) showed the same scores. 8. There was strong tendency toward higher obsession scores in the students who were dissatisfied with their home atmosphere, college, department and familiarity of parents and those who had pessimistic view of self in the past, present, or future in both group (respectively P<0.001). The female students who attended the department of home economic & whose educational fees were paid by her brothers & sister, showed higher level of obsession scores (respectively P<0.01).