Clinical Characteristics and Heart Rate Variability of Foreign Domestic Violence Victims in Korea / 수면정신생리

OBJECTIVES: Domestic violence is related to many psychiatric diseases, such as depression, anxiety disorder, and PTSD. Heart rate variability (HRV) is an index of autonomic control of the heart and is related to cardiovascular and emotional disorders. Although there have been some studies on the effects of domestic violence on women's mental health, relatively little information is available on HRV in this population. The aim of this study is to investigate demographic data, psychological features, and HRV in female victims of domestic violence and difference between Korean and foreign female victims. METHODS: A total of 210 female victims of domestic violence (166 Korean women and 44 foreign women) were recruited for this study. Psychological symptoms were measured using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), and Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). HRV measures were assessed by time-domain and frequency-domain analyses. RESULTS: The mean score of HAM-A was 13.81, that of HAM-D was 12.92, and that of IES-R was 33.61 ; there were no significant differences between Korean and foreign women in these measures. In HRV time domain analyses, approximate entropy (ApEn) was significantly increased in foreign women compared to the Korean women. The square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of differences between adjacent NN intervals (RMSSD) was significantly decreased in foreign women compared to Korean women. There were no significant differences in the other HRV variables between Korean and foreign women. CONCLUSION: Female victims of domestic violence in Korea are associated with depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. The physiologic factors of a female victim's nationality could be related to higher ApEn and lower RMSSD in foreign female victims. These findings have important implications for future study to study the relationships among ethnic and environmental factors and HRV variables.

Outpatient Follow-up Status and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants

PURPOSE: To report the follow-up status and neurodevelopmental outcomes of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) survivors at 18 months' corrected age (CA). METHOD: We performed a retrospective study of 130 ELBW infants admitted to neonatal intensive care unit of Seoul National University Children's Hospital between January 2005 and May 2009. The follow-up status and neurodevelopmental outcomes were evaluated until the CA of 18 months. The assessment of outcomes included cerebral palsy, cognitive developmental delay, blindness, deafness and catch-up growth. Clinical data were collected to identify the factors influencing neurodevelopmental disability. RESULTS: Of the 130 survivors at discharge, 122 (93.8%) participated in the follow-up at 18 months' CA. Study characteristics included a mean birth weight of 783 g and a mean gestation of 27 weeks. One hundred and eleven infants (85.4%) were evaluated for cerebral palsy (CP) and 11 (9.9%) were identified with CP. Eighty five infants (74.6%) were assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-III (BSID-III) at 8 months' CA and 2 (2.4%) had a cognitive scale <70. Fifty four infants (41.9%) were assessed with BSID-III at 18 months' CA and 2 (3.7%) had a cognitive scale <70. There were 2 (1.2%) cases of blindness and the case of deafness was not present in this study. The failure of catch-up growth was seen in 40 (32.8%) infants. Severe intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, hydrocephalus and shunt insertion were the most important risk factors for neurologic abnormality. CONCLUSION: In our institution, neurodevelopmental outcomes of ELBW survivors were comparable to recent reports from the USA. ELBW infants need to be monitored on multidisciplinary follow-up programs and more efforts should be made to improve the follow-up.