MyMedR

Displaying all 7 publications

Abstract:

Sort:

Evolution and trends of hikikomori: a bibliometrics analysis

Wan Hussain WMH

Int J Psychiatry Clin Pract, 2023 Nov;27(4):385-396.
PMID: 37452649 DOI: 10.1080/13651501.2023.2233580

Hikikomori is the Japanese term for the phenomenon of young adults isolating themselves from society and becoming reclusive. This study aims to examine the evolution and distribution of hikikomori, as well as identify the major players and institutions involved in hikikomori research. The searches, which were conducted in Scopus database identified 286 academic research works pertaining to hikikomori research. The findings indicate that hikikomori has attracted the attention of academic researchers in both the East and the West, with a consistent increase in research output since the Internet revolution over the past decade. The study highlights the potential for additional research on hikikomori and provides a benchmark for new researchers entering the field.

Matched MeSH terms: Phobia, Social*
The Association of Rumination and Perfectionism to Social Anxiety

Abdollahi A

Psychiatry, 2019;82(4):345-353.
PMID: 31112491 DOI: 10.1080/00332747.2019.1608783

Objective: Evaluative concerns perfectionism is related to both rumination and social anxiety. However, the mediating role of rumination between two types of perfectionism-namely, evaluative concerns perfectionism and personal standards perfectionism-and social anxiety has yet to be studied. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the mediating role of rumination on the association between perfectionism and social anxiety. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 450 Malaysian undergraduate students using self-report questionnaires. Results: Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that evaluative concerns perfectionism and rumination were significant positive predictors of social anxiety. Multimodel analysis revealed that rumination partially mediated the association between evaluative concerns perfectionism and social anxiety. Conclusions: The results suggested that evaluative concerns perfectionists were more likely to engage in rumination and were consequently more likely to experience social anxiety.

Matched MeSH terms: Phobia, Social/psychology*
Fulltext Analysis of Default Mode Network in Social Anxiety Disorder: EEG Resting-State Effective Connectivity Study

Al-Ezzi A, Kamel N, Faye I, Gunaseli E

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Jun 15;21(12).
PMID: 34203578 DOI: 10.3390/s21124098

Recent brain imaging findings by using different methods (e.g., fMRI and PET) have suggested that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is correlated with alterations in regional or network-level brain function. However, due to many limitations associated with these methods, such as poor temporal resolution and limited number of samples per second, neuroscientists could not quantify the fast dynamic connectivity of causal information networks in SAD. In this study, SAD-related changes in brain connections within the default mode network (DMN) were investigated using eight electroencephalographic (EEG) regions of interest. Partial directed coherence (PDC) was used to assess the causal influences of DMN regions on each other and indicate the changes in the DMN effective network related to SAD severity. The DMN is a large-scale brain network basically composed of the mesial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus, and lateral parietal cortex (LPC). The EEG data were collected from 88 subjects (22 control, 22 mild, 22 moderate, 22 severe) and used to estimate the effective connectivity between DMN regions at different frequency bands: delta (1-3 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), low beta (13-21 Hz), and high beta (22-30 Hz). Among the healthy control (HC) and the three considered levels of severity of SAD, the results indicated a higher level of causal interactions for the mild and moderate SAD groups than for the severe and HC groups. Between the control and the severe SAD groups, the results indicated a higher level of causal connections for the control throughout all the DMN regions. We found significant increases in the mean PDC in the delta (p = 0.009) and alpha (p = 0.001) bands between the SAD groups. Among the DMN regions, the precuneus exhibited a higher level of causal influence than other regions. Therefore, it was suggested to be a major source hub that contributes to the mental exploration and emotional content of SAD. In contrast to the severe group, HC exhibited higher resting-state connectivity at the mPFC, providing evidence for mPFC dysfunction in the severe SAD group. Furthermore, the total Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) was positively correlated with the mean values of the PDC of the severe SAD group, r (22) = 0.576, p = 0.006 and negatively correlated with those of the HC group, r (22) = -0.689, p = 0.001. The reported results may facilitate greater comprehension of the underlying potential SAD neural biomarkers and can be used to characterize possible targets for further medication.

Matched MeSH terms: Phobia, Social*
Unremitting body odour: A case of Olfactory Reference Syndrome

Tee CK, Suzaily W

Clin Ter, 2015;166(2):72-3.
PMID: 25945434 DOI: 10.7417/CT.2015.1819

Olfactory reference syndrome (ORS) is a person's fear of exuding an offensive body odour which is not perceived by others. The objective of this case report is to highlight the challenges in diagnosing olfactory reference syndrome due to the lack of diagnostic criteria as well as its similarities to other psychiatric illnesses. We report a case of a young Chinese gentleman who was preoccupied with the belief that he had an offensive body odour which was not noticeable by others since the age of 10. As a result of this, he developed compulsive behaviour, social anxiety and avoidance, as well as depression. The patient had an array of psychiatric symptoms. He had symptoms which fulfilled criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), delusional disorder somatic type, and social anxiety disorder. ORS remains a diagnostic challenge. Further studies are needed in this area for a better understanding of the disorder.

Matched MeSH terms: Phobia, Social/psychology
Comparison of social anxiety between Japanese adults who stutter and non-stuttering controls

Chu SY, Sakai N, Lee J, Harrison E, Tang KP, Mori K

J Fluency Disord, 2020 09;65:105767.
PMID: 32535211 DOI: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2020.105767

PURPOSE: Adults who stutter (AWS) often develop social anxiety disorder. This study was to provide comparative data on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale-Japanese version (LSAS-J) from AWS and non-stuttering adult controls.
METHODS: LSAS-J, a 24-item self-reported survey of social phobia and avoidance across various daily situations, was administered to 130 AWS (Mean Age = 41.5 years, SD = 15.8, 111 males) and 114 non-stuttering adults (Mean Age = 39.5, SD = 14.9, 53 males). The test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the LSAS-J were assessed. A between-subject multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was also conducted to determine whether attitude toward social anxiety differed between AWS and AWNS, or by age (<40 and ≥ 40 years old), or sex (female and male).
RESULTS: AWS reported higher scores on both fear subscales of the LSAS-J. Age had no significant influence on the social anxiety levels reported by either participant group. Sex differences were found in the fear subscales, with females scoring higher on both fear subscales, although these were only marginally significant (p = .06). LSAS-J showed good test-retest reliability and high Cronbach's alpha coefficient, indicating that it is an internally consistent measure of attitudes about social anxiety.
CONCLUSION: Given the similarly high incidence of social anxiety in adults in Japan who stutter compared with those in other countries, social anxiety should be identified and assessed during clinical decision making and before decisions are made about stuttering treatment. LSAS-J is an easy tool to administer, and showed reliable results of social phobia and avoidance for AWS.

Matched MeSH terms: Phobia, Social/etiology*; Phobia, Social/pathology
Fulltext Behavioural responses and anxiety symptoms during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Japan: A large scale cross-sectional study

Cai G, Lin Y, Lu Y, He F, Morita K, Yamamoto T, et al.

J Psychiatr Res, 2021 Apr;136:296-305.
PMID: 33631655 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.02.008

BACKGROUND: This study explored the behavioural responses and anxiety symptoms of the general adult population in Japan during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
METHODS: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between 12th and May 13, 2020. Quota sampling was used to attain equal gender and age distributions representative of the Japanese population.
RESULTS: A total of 4127 complete responses were analysed. Higher educational level (B = 0.045, p = 0.002) and household income (B = 0.04, p = 0.009) were associated with a higher increase in preventive measures when comparing before and after the state of emergency was declared. The highest reported social anxiety was a feeling of fear (65.6%), followed by embarrassment (43.8%), keeping infection a secret (41.3%), avoidance (41.3%), and stigma (25.5%). A total of 86.1% of the respondents reported moderate to severe anxiety. The partial least square-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) revealed that being female has the greatest effect (B = 0.246, p social anxiety (B = 0.119; p = 0.001) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores (B = 0.153; p

Matched MeSH terms: Phobia, Social/epidemiology
Fulltext Psychiatric Sequelae of Former "Comfort Women," Survivors of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery during World War II

Lee J, Kwak YS, Kim YJ, Kim EJ, Park EJ, Shin Y, et al.

Psychiatry Investig, 2018 Apr;15(4):336-343.
PMID: 29669407 DOI: 10.30773/pi.2017.11.08.2

"Comfort women" refers to young women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military during World War II. They were abducted from their homes in countries under Imperial Japanese rule, mostly from Korea, and the rest from China, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Netherlands, etc. "Comfort women" endured extreme trauma involving rape, sexual torture, physical abuse, starvation, threats of death, and witnessed many others being tortured and killed. This article reviews all the studies that have investigated the psychiatric or psychosocial sequelae of the survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery. Most importantly, a recent study which conducted a psychiatric evaluation on the former "comfort women" currently alive in South Korea is introduced. The participants' unmarried rate was relatively high and their total fertility rate was relatively low. Majority of the participants reported having no education and being the low economic status. They showed high current and lifetime prevalence of posttraumatic disorder, major depressive disorder, somatic symptom disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and alcohol use disorder. Participants showed high suicidality and majority of the participants still reported being ashamed of being former "comfort women" after all these years. This article high-lights the fact that the trauma has affected the mental health and social functioning of former "comfort women" throughout their lives, and even to the present day.

Matched MeSH terms: Phobia, Social