A study on postpartum symptoms and their related factors in Korea

AbstractObjectiveThis study was aimed to identify the physical and mental state of women after delivery, to investigate the factors that influence those, and to examine the effects of postpartum care performance, which is traditionally believed to be appropriate care in Korea, on women's physical and mental status.Materials and MethodsA total of 148 women who visited our hospital for postpartum check-up on the 2nd week or 6th week after delivery were selected. We researched postpartum care methods using a questionnaire and had the women self-evaluate their postpartum symptoms. Depression was evaluated using the Beck Depression Inventory.ResultsThe average points of the 27 postpartum symptoms was 2.70 points (from 1 = very good to 5 = very bad). Seventy-two women had depression. Factors related to postpartum symptoms and depression were smoking before pregnancy, low marital satisfaction, bad mood during and after pregnancy, lack of support from husbands, and bad quality of sleep during puerperium. Treating the joints of hands carefully when milking breasts, and avoiding squatting down, demonstrated a negative correlation with the average points of postpartum symptoms. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that mood during puerperium and Beck Depression Inventory points were significant factors related to the average points of postpartum symptoms and that the degree of support from husbands and mood during pregnancy were statistically related with depression.ConclusionMany women complained of postpartum discomfort. Although, while some postpartum care methods which are traditionally believed to be appropriate care in Korea can be helpful to women's recovery, most of them are not. We confirmed that physical symptoms and depression are closely related to each other

Experience in Close Relationships Scale-Short Version (ECR-S) Validation With Korean College Students

The goal of this study was to validate the Experience in Close Relationships Scale-Short version (ECR-S) in Korean college students. One item of the attachment avoidance subscale was deleted following confirmatory factor analysis. The results suggest that the ECR-S demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and construct validity.N

Self-Focused Attention and Career Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Career Adaptability

The purpose of this study was to examine how 2 forms of self-focused attention, self-reflection and self-rumination, influence career anxiety. The authors hypothesized that the association between these 2 types of self-focused attention and career anxiety would be mediated by career adaptability on the basis of a career construction model of adaptation. The participants were 326 undergraduate students in South Korea. The results of this study supported the hypothesized mediation model by indicating significant indirect effects of self-reflection and self-rumination on career anxiety via career adaptability. The direct effect of self-rumination on career anxiety was significant (B = .44, p < .01), but the direct effect of self-reflection on career anxiety was not significant (B = -.05, p > .05). The authors discuss implications for counselors to help college students manage career anxiety by encouraging and supporting increased career adaptability. Future research to examine the cross-cultural validity of the current findings is needed.N

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Korean College Students' Help-Seeking Intention

When dealing with the mental health concerns of college students, access to professional mental health services is necessary to enable early identification and prevention of severe mental health issues. Accordingly, this study used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to determine the predictors of help-seeking intentions among college students in Korea. The authors developed a TPB questionnaire to measure attitudes, subjective norms, behavioral control, and intentions for seeking help and subsequently validated it via the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The authors considered mental health condition as a pre-existing factor that influences TPB variables. In addition, they deemed knowledge of professional mental health services as a factor influencing perceived behavioral control regarding help-seeking behavior among Korean college students. The research hypotheses were stated as follows: (H1) mental health conditions would influence TPB variables, which would in turn influence their intentions to seek help, and (H2) knowledge about professional mental health services would influence perceived behavioral control. With 300 undergraduate and graduate students, our results confirmed that mental health condition and knowledge about professional mental health services were associated with TPB variables, and all of the TPB variables we examined predicted intention to seek help.N

Production of Transgenic Cloned Miniature Pigs with Membrane-bound Human Fas Ligand (FasL) by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Cell-mediated xenograft rejection, including NK cells and CD8+ CTL, is a major obstacle in successful pig-to-human xenotransplantation. Human CD8+ CTL and NK cells display high cytotoxicity for pig cells, mediated at least in part by the Fas/FasL pathway. To prevent cell-mediated xenocytotoxicity, a membrane-bound form of human FasL (mFasL) was generated as an inhibitor for CTL and NK cell cytotoxicity that could not be cleaved by metalloproteinase to produce putative soluble FasL. We produced two healthy transgenic pigs harboring the mFasL gene via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In a cytotoxicity assay using transgenic clonal cell lines and transgenic pig ear cells, the rate of CD8+ CTL-mediated cytotoxicity was significantly reduced in transgenic pig's ear cells compared with that in normal minipig fetal fibroblasts. Our data indicate that grafts of transgenic pigs expressing membrane-bound human FasL control the cellular immune response to xenografts, creating a window of opportunity to facilitate xenograft survival

Characteristics of Adolescent Patients Admitted to the Emergency Department due to Attempted Suicide by Poisoning; a Brief Report

Introduction: In the background of the increased suicide rate in the second decade of life, analysis of the characteristics of poisoning-related attempted suicide in adolescents and evaluation of the differences from adults may form an important basis for establishing measures to prevent deaths from poisoning. Objective: We aimed to investigate the types of toxic substances ingested for attempted suicide by poisoning in adolescents admitted to the emergency department (ED). Method: This cross-sectional study retrospectively analyzed and investigated the medical records of patients aged 13 or older, admitted to the ED of a tertiary medical institute over a period of 3 years, for attempted suicide by poisoning. Results: The psychiatric diagnoses among patients in the adolescent group included depression (75.8%), bipolar disorder (12.5%), and panic disorder (12.5%). In terms of the type of drug used for poisoning, antidepressants or anti-psychotics and sleeping pills were the most commonly used in the adolescent (43 subjects, 45.2%) and adult (286 subjects, 37.6%) groups, respectively. Conclusion: As there is a higher chance of poisoning by easily accessible drugs, the emergency physician needs to investigate any preceding diagnoses of psychiatric or medical illnesses in the adolescent patients attempting suicide with unknown drugs

Visfatin exerts angiogenic effects on human umbilical vein endothelial cells through the mTOR signaling pathway

AbstractThe biologically active factors known as adipocytokines are secreted primarily by adipose tissues and can act as modulators of angiogenesis. Visfatin, an adipocytokine that has recently been reported to have angiogenic properties, is upregulated in diabetes, cancer, and inflammatory diseases. Because maintenance of an angiogenic balance is critically important in the management of these diseases, understanding the molecular mechanism by which visfatin promotes angiogenesis is very important. In this report, we describe our findings demonstrating that visfatin stimulates the mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, which plays important roles in angiogenesis. Visfatin induced the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in human endothelial cells. Inhibition of the mTOR pathway by rapamycin eliminated the angiogenic and proliferative effects of visfatin. The visfatin-induced increase in VEGF expression was also eliminated by RNA interference-mediated knockdown of the 70-kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K), a downstream target of mTOR. Visfatin inactivated glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) by phosphorylating it at Ser-9, leading to the nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Both rapamycin co-treatment and p70S6K knockdown inhibited visfatin-induced GSK3β phosphorylation at Ser-9 and nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Taken together, these results indicate that mTOR signaling is involved in visfatin-induced angiogenesis, and that this signaling leads to visfatin-induced VEGF expression and nuclear translocation of β-catenin