Prolonged Unmet Mental Health Needs of the 2017 Pohang Earthquake Survivors.

OBJECTIVE: Two years after the 2017 Pohang earthquake, some people sought follow-up mental health support. The demographic and clinical characteristics of this unique group of people were investigated to identify some insights on the predisposing factors of the longterm need for psychiatric help after a severe earthquake disaster. METHODS: De-identified data from those seeking mental health support 2 years after the 2017 Pohang earthquake were used. The descriptive statistics of demographic and clinical characteristics of the study group was identified and paired with general population data obtained from open and public governmental websites. Sex, age distribution, destruction of house, and psychiatric disorder were compared between the follow-up sample and general population. RESULTS: The proportion of women in the group seeking support was two times higher than that in the general population, and people ages between 50 and 70 years commonly sought support. The severity of home destruction was higher among people who sought and needed follow-up mental health support programs than in the general population. There was a higher proportion of people with psychiatric disorders in the group seeking support than in the general population. CONCLUSION: The need for long-term mental health support 2 years after an earthquake was higher in women than in men and those aged between 50 and 70 years, and those with a previous psychiatric history and with a higher severity of home destruction, which lead to necessitating leaving the home. Future earthquake response should include screening and psychiatric treatment referral and residential support in vulnerable people.

Defining Subtypes in Children with Nail Biting: A Latent Profile Analysis of Personality.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine personality profiles and behavioral problems of children with nail biting (NB) to gain insight into the developmental trajectory of pathological NB. METHODS: 681 elementary school students were divided into non NB (n=436), occasional NB (n=173) and frequent NB group (n=72) depending on the frequency of NB reported in Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL). Children's personality was assessed using the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (JTCI), and behavioral problems were assessed using the CBCL. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was performed using JTCI profiles to classify personalities of the children with NB (belonging to frequent and occasional NB group, n=245). RESULTS: For subscale scores of CBCL, the total, internalizing, externalizing, anxious/depressed withdrawn/depressed, depression, thought, rule-breaking, and aggressive behavior problems, were most severe in the frequent NB group followed by occasional NB and non NB group. LPA of personality profile in children with NB revealed four classes ('adaptiveness,' 'high reward dependence,' 'low self-directedness,' and 'maldaptiveness'). The four personality classes demonstrated significant group differences in all of the CBCL subscales. Children who showed low self-directedness and cooperativeness and high novelty seeking and harm avoidance personality profiles demonstrated highest tendency for problematic behavior irrespective of the frequency of NB. CONCLUSION: Children with NB reported significantly more problematic behaviors compared to children without NB. Children with specific personality profile demonstrated higher tendency for problematic behavior irrespective of the frequency of NB. Therefore, accompanying personality profiles should be considered when assessing behavioral problems in children with NB.

The Relationship between Personality, Sense of Efficacy, and Stress in Korean Teachers.

Several studies have linked teachers' personality characteristics and sense of efficacy to stress. However, investigating the relationship between these three constructs in this context was limited. This study aims to investigate the relationship between personality, sense of efficacy and perceived stress among Korean teachers. A total of 137 teachers working in elementary, middle, and high schools located in Seoul, South Korea were recruited for the study. The participants were administered Temperament and Character Inventory, Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), and Perceived Stress Scale. The TSES was negatively correlated with harm avoidance and positively correlated with persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence. Perceived stress was positively correlated with harm avoidance and negatively correlated with persistence and self-directedness. The path analysis showed that harm avoidance directly predicted perceived stress (ß=0.37, 95% CI=0.21-0.53, p=0.002), and self-directedness and persistence predicted one's sense of efficacy (ß=0.18, 95% CI=0.01-0.39 and ß=0.31, 95% CI=0.10-0.47), which predicted perceived stress (ß=-0.21, 95% CI=-0.39 to -0.02). The results of the present study indicate that harm avoidance might be associated with stress-proneness, while persistence, self-directedness, and sense of efficacy might act as protective resources against stress in Korean teachers.

Interactive effects of background facial emotion stimulus and target salience on sustained attention performance in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia impairs both facial emotion processing and sustained attention. Through separate studies, it is known that the presence of a task-irrelevant facial stimulus disproportionately interferes with performance, whereas increasing the salience of task stimulus improves performance during a sustained attention task in patients with schizophrenia. We wished to investigate a potential interaction effect of background facial emotion expression (black and white happy faces vs. grey oval) and target stimulus salience (bright white vs. grey) using the Continuous Performance Test-Identical Pairs version (CPT-IP) in patients with schizophrenia. Thirty-six patients with schizophrenia and 28 healthy control subjects completed 4 different versions of the CPT-IP. We found that healthy controls exhibited higher signal detection sensitivity (d') when salient target stimuli were presented on the facial background than when the same stimuli were presented on the grey-oval background. By contrast, patients were not affected by background stimuli when target number stimuli were salient. When target number stimuli were not salient, both patients and controls showed higher d' in the grey-oval background condition compared with the facial background condition. This study highlight the significance of stimulus salience during CPT-IP in schizophrenia as background stimuli did not produce a differential effect on performance. Our results suggest that, in the situations where facial emotion stimuli are present, patients' sustained attention can be deteriorated and that the use of salient materials is important in improving performance in schizophrenia.

The relationship between theta-gamma coupling and spatial memory ability in older adults.

Although theta-gamma coupling is known to reflect memory-related processes, it is unclear whether it has a relationship with memory ability. Here, we investigated the relationship between theta phase and gamma power coupling (TGC) and scores obtained regarding memory tasks. Thirty-one older subjects performed a spatial delayed match-to-sample task (SDMST) during EEG recording. We also evaluated performance on the delayed figure recall (DFR) and delayed verbal recall (DVR) tasks regarding memory ability. Partial correlation analysis (controlled for age) demonstrated that increases in TGC in the parietal area were significantly correlated with increases in the DFR scores obtained. In addition, TGC was significantly correlated with the accuracy rate of the SDMST. Our results indicate that TGC could be a useful biophysiological marker of memory ability.