Characteristics of Cellular Phone Use and its Association with Psychological Problems among Adolescents

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the characteristics of cellular phone use and its association with psychological problems among adolescents. METHODS: A total of 332 adolescent students were recruited for this study. The participants' self-reported characteristics of cellular phone use and the psychological problems caused by this were tested by using the Excessive Cellular Phone Use Survey (ECPUS), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) and the Korea-Youth Self Report (K-YSR). RESULTS: The excessive user group made more use of text messages and they spent more time and paid higher fees than the comparison group. They expressed severer depression and anxiety and they had more behavior problems and lower school performance than the comparison group. The ECPUS score was positively correlated with score of the CDI, STAIC and the behavior problem scales of the K-YSR, and the ECPUS score was negatively correlated with the school performance scale of the K-YSR. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that excessive cellular phone use by adolescents may be related to psychological problems. Careful education about the use of cellular phones and intervention are recommended for adolescents who excessively use cellular phones.

Serious Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Antipsychotic-Induced Hyperprolactinemia / 대한정신약물학회지

Many antipsychotics have the potential to increase plasma prolactin levels, leading to a range of short-term and long-term adverse effects. In addition to short-term adverse effects such as galactorrhea, gynecomastia, menstrual irregularities, and sexual dysfunction, a number of important and potentially serious long-term adverse effects have been reported, including loss of bone mineral density, weight gain, pituitary tumor, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. Short-term adverse effects may negatively impact medication compliance, and long-term effects have the potential for serious health consequences. However, to a large degree, hyperprolactinemia has been neglected in clinical practice and research, compared with other potential adverse effects. Balancing the benefits of treatment with antipsychotics against their potential adverse effects is clinically important. Effective management of hyperprolactinemia begins with taking a careful patient history to determine the presence of any relevant signs and symptoms. If a mild elevation of plasma prolactin levels is detected ( 0 ng/mL, then the clinician should consider switching to a drug with a lower potential to elevate prolactin. In any patient with a prolactin elevation greater than 150 ng/mL, a prolactinoma should be considered

The Effect of Schizotypal Personality Trait on the Ability of Facial Affect Identification in Healthy Person

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the ability of facial affect perception is associated with schizotypal personality traits in healthy normal controls. METHODS: 241 normal subjects were recruited in this study. The age range of all subjects was from 19 to 63 years. The schizotypal personality questionnaire(SPQ) and facial affect identification test(FAIT), which were developed and standardized in Korea, were applied. Subjects from high 1 standard deviation(H group, N=40) and low 1 standard deviation(L group, N=26) on SPQ score were compared. RESULTS: We found that the H group showed significantly reduced ability on the correctness of sadness and neutral compared with the L group. But, no significant association between SPQ and intensity or reaction point was observed in all subjects. CONCLUSION: This study suggests the individuals with high schizotypal personality trait have impairments on the facial affect identification. Also, these findings may provide the reasonable explanation of social cognition deficit of schizotypal personality disorder.

Nonlinear Analysis of Electroencephalogram in Schizophrenia Patients with Persistent Auditory Hallucination

OBJECTIVE: The recent nonlinear analyses of electroencephalogram (EEG) data have shown that the correlation dimension (D2) reflects the degree of integration of information processing in the brain. There is now considerable evidence that auditory hallucination (AH) reflects dysfunctional gamma and beta frequency oscillations. Gamma oscillations are thought to reflect internally driven representations of objects, and the occurrence of subsequent beta oscillations can reflect the modification of the neuronal circuitry used to encode the sensory perception. The purpose of this study was to test whether AH in schizophrenia patients is reflected in abnormalities in D2 in their EEG, especially in the gamma and beta frequency bands. METHODS: Twenty-five schizophrenia patients with a history of treatment-refractory AH over at least the past 2 years, and 23 schizophrenia patients with no AH (N-AH) within the past 2 years were recruited for the study. Artifact-free 30-s EEG epochs during rest were examined for D2. RESULTS: The AH patients showed significantly increased gamma frequency D2 in Fp2 and decreased beta frequency D2 in the P3 region compared with the N-AH patients. These results imply that gamma frequency D2 in the right prefrontal cortex is more chaotic and that beta frequency D2 in the left parietal cortex is more coherent (less chaotic) in AH patients than in N-AH patients. CONCLUSION: Our study supports the previous evidence indicating that gamma and beta oscillations are pivotal to AH, and also shows the distinctive dimensional complexity between the right prefrontal and left parietal cortexes as the underlying biological correlates of AH in schizophrenia patients.