ABSTRACT
The prevalence of schizophrenia is gradually increasing worldwide. Many patients with schizophrenia have a diminished ability to empathize and to detect their own emotions or those of others, deteriorating their social functioning and their quality of life. Nonetheless, emotional management training may improve patients' emotion recognition, emotional expression, and negative symptoms. Developing and applying a short but effective program that reflects the current medical environment, in which hospital stays are ever-diminishing, is warranted. This one-group, pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental pilot study aimed to examine the effects of a short emotional management program (EMP-S) on 17 patients with chronic schizophrenia. Participants were patients hospitalized in the National Center for Mental Health in Korea. After the completion of a twice-a-week, eight-session, four-week long EMP-S, participants showed improvements in emotion recognition, emotional expression, and negative symptoms. Our results suggest the applicability and potential effectiveness of the EMP-S, which takes the length of psychiatric hospital stay and the inpatient environment into consideration. To minimize any barriers to social functioning in the post-discharge lives of inpatients with chronic schizophrenia and enhance their social cognition-by improving their emotion recognition, emotional expression, and negative symptoms-we suggest the periodical administration of this EMP-S to these inpatients.
Subject(s)
Inpatients , Schizophrenia , Aftercare , Emotions , Humans , Patient Discharge , Pilot Projects , Quality of Life , Republic of Korea , Schizophrenia/therapy , Schizophrenic PsychologyABSTRACT
The prevalence of hypertension among women in Korea aged 65 years or older is 61.7%. Past research has emphasized the importance of health-promoting behaviors in hypertension management for the elderly. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to identify the effects of self-efficacy, depression, trait anger, and anger expression on the health-promoting behaviors of elderly women with hypertension. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 208 women aged 65 and older (age range: 65 to 85) diagnosed with hypertension by physicians and living in the communities of G city and N city of Gyeonggi-do in South Korea. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that exercise (ß = 0.36, p < 0.001) had the most significant effect on health-promoting behaviors, followed by depression (ß = -0.31, p < 0.001), trait anger (ß = 0.21, p = 0.002), anger control (ß = 0.20, p < 0.001), religion (ß = 0.18, p = 0.001), and self-efficacy (ß = 0.18, p = 0.003). Trait anger and anger control were identified to have a more significant effect on health-promoting behaviors than self-efficacy. Thus, health-promoting behaviors were influenced by exercise, depression, anger, religion, and self-efficacy. It is necessary to implement a nursing intervention strategy which pays attention to these factors to improve health-promoting behaviors of Korean community-dwelling elderly women.
Subject(s)
Anger , Depression , Hypertension , Self Efficacy , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Cross-Sectional Studies , Depression/epidemiology , Female , Health Behavior , Humans , Hypertension/epidemiology , Republic of Korea/epidemiology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is an essential cofactor that mediates numerous biological processes in all living cells. Multiple NAD+ biosynthetic enzymes and NAD+-consuming enzymes are involved in neuroprotection and axon regeneration. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has served as a model to study the neuronal role of NAD+ because many molecular components regulating NAD+ are highly conserved. This review focuses on recent findings using C. elegans models of neuronal damage pertaining to the neuronal functions of NAD+ and its precursors, including a neuroprotective role against excitotoxicity and axon degeneration as well as an inhibitory role in axon regeneration. The regulation of NAD+ levels could be a promising therapeutic strategy to counter many neurodegenerative diseases, as well as neurotoxin-induced and traumatic neuronal damage.
Subject(s)
NAD/therapeutic use , Neurodegenerative Diseases/drug therapy , Neurotoxins/toxicity , Animals , Caenorhabditis elegans , Disease Models, Animal , NAD/pharmacology , Nerve Regeneration/drug effects , Neurodegenerative Diseases/etiology , Neurodegenerative Diseases/metabolism , Neuroprotection , Signal TransductionABSTRACT
Infinite square-tubular helices, [CuCl2(L)(S)] (L = bis(4-pyridyl)methylvinylsilane; S = Me2SO, HCONMe2), were constructed. This helical system affords three kinds of P, M crystals in Me2SO, and racemic crystals in HCONMe2. The cyclic voltammogram (CV) technique using the M-crystals is an effective tool for discerning the chirality of proline.
