The Korean Practice Parameter for the Treatment of Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Clinical Manifestation, Epidemiology, Course, Causes, and Comorbidity

Pervasive developmental disorders are characterized by lifelong impairments in fundamental social and/or communication skills and by the presence of seemingly purposeless and repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities. A number of possible biological etiologies, including genetic, structural and functional brain abnormalities, have been identified in patients with pervasive developmental disorders. In addition, clinicians should take the possibility of comorbid psychiatric conditions into consideration when making the differential diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorders.

The Korean Practice Parameter for the Treatment of Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Diagnosis and Assessment

Multiple areas of development are affected in pervasive developmental disorders(PDD), and assessments of various aspects of behavior and development are essential for diagnosis. The object of this review is to provide the practical guidelines for the assessment of core features of PDD, including abnormalities in communication, social interaction, and repetitive and stereotyped behavior. It covers the issues of differential diagnosis within and outside the PDD category, standardized diagnostic tools, assessment of intellectual and language functions, and the early diagnosis of PDD in infancy. This guideline also stresses the process of medical and neurological evaluation for proper diagnosis of PDD.

The Reliability and Validity of Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV-Korean Version (DISC-IV)

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean Version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV(DISC-IV), a highly structured diagnostic interview used to assess more than 30 psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. METHODS: A total of 91 study subjects, including 67 subjects who visited the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic at our institution and 24 community-based subjects, were assessed using the Korean Version of the DISCIV. Clinical diagnosis was used as a gold standard for the examination of the validity of the DISC-IV. Forty-four of the study subjects were randomly selected for test-retest reliability measurement. RESULTS: The validity of the Korean Version of the DISC-IV showed kappa values ranging from 0.25 to 0.40 in the clinical sample and 0.65 to 1.00 in the community sample. The sensitivities varied according to the diagnostic categories, but the specificities were excellent for all diagnostic entities. CONCLUSION: The Korean Version of the DISC-IV showed good reliability and validity in Korean children and adolescents. The Korean Version of the DISC-IV might be a useful tool for assessing psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents.

Clinical Factors affecting Quality of Life in Children with Epilepsy / 대한소아신경학회지

PURPOSE:Despite the worldwide interests in the quality of life issues in children with epilepsy, only few studies have been conducted in Korea yet. This study is aimed to analyze clinical factors related with the issues of life in children with epilepsy. METHODS:A total of 158 children(79 patients/79 control) were involved in the study from the Department of Pediatrics at Asan Medical Center and 79 normal children who completed the Korean Child Behavior Checklist(K-CBCL). We used the Korean version of the Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy Questionnaire(K-QOLCE) to evaluate the quality of life. The differences of the quality of life between the patients and the controls were compared and the influencing factors were evaluated. RESULTS:The scores of physical functions, well-being, cognition, social functions, behaviors, general health, and quality of life were lower in the patients than in the controls. We found higher scores of quality of life in the patients with epilepsy who were younger when diagnosed, had shorter disease period, took fewer drugs, and took drugs for a shorter time(P<0.05). Higher scores of physical restriction(P=0.017), self-esteem(P=0.006), cognition(P=0.02), and behaviors(P=0.019) were noted for the patients with partial seizures, compared to those with generalized seizures. CONCLUSION:We found that the quality of life in the pediatric epilepsy patients was lower than that of normal children and various factors associated with the treatment of epilepsy influenced the quality of life. The information obtained from this study will help us offer better epilepsy management.

The Psychopathology of Overweight and Obesity in Community Children / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to evaluate the relationship between the degree of obesity and psychopathology in children. METHODS: 504 children from the Kimpo City and their parents participated in this study. According to BMI percentile for their gender and age, we divided them into three groups; the normoweight group, the overweight group, and the obese group. The Child Depression Inventory (CDI), the Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAI-C), and the subscale 3 of the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale were used for children. The Korean-Child Behavioral Checklist (K-CBCL) was completed by their parents. RESULTS: In subscale 3 of the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale, 'the physical appearance and attitude', the score of the overweight group was significantly lower than that of the normoweight group. In CDI and STAI-C, there were no differences among three groups. We found significant differences among three groups in the mean scores of social problems, delinquent behavior, aggressive behavior, externalizing symptoms, and total problem in the CBCL scale. CONCLUSION: The findings in this study showed evidences for a psychosocial at-risk population in a community samples of children with overweight and obesity. The nation-wide study including adolescents is needed.

Preliminary Standardization of the Computerized Standard Progressive Matrices in Korean Adults / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: We conducted this study to provide standardized data of the computerized Standard Progressive Matirices(SPM)test in Korean adults. METHODS: The computerized SPM test was administered to 353 healthy volunteers aged 18 years over. We provided the standardized data(percentile and standardized T-scores)for the groups with similar mean and distribution of SPM scores, which was originally divided by age and sex. The validity of the new standardized data was tested by comparing IQs estimated by SPM and K-WAIS. RESULTS: The standardized SPM data were provided for four age groups: 18 to 30 years, 31 to 40 years, 41 to 50 years, 51 years and over. IQ estimated by this standardized data tends to be closer to IQ by K-WAIS than the IQ estimated by foreign normative data. CONCLUSION: The standardized data of the computerized SPM were proven to be a useful and valid tool for measuring IQ briefly, compared with the conventional way of measuring IQ.