Browsing by Author "Chou, Yu-Ching"

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Cognitive enhancers associated with decreased risk of injury in patients with dementia: a nationwide cohort study in Taiwan
(2018-03-01)
Chao, Pei-Chun
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Chien, Wu-Chien
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Chung, Chi-Hsiang
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Chu, Ching-Wen
;
Yeh, Chin-Bin
This study aimed to investigate the associations among dementia, psychotropic medications and the risk of overall injuries. In this nationwide matched cohort study, a total of 144008 enrolled patients age of 50, with 36002 study subjects who suffered from dementia and 108006 controls matched for sex and age, from the Inpatient Dataset, for the period 2000-2010 in Taiwan were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database, according to International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification. When adjusting for the confounding factors, a Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to compare the risk of developing psychiatric disorders during the 10 years of follow-up. Of the study subjects, 6701 (18.61%) suffered injury when compared with 20919 (19.37%) in the control group. The Cox regression analysis revealed that the study subjects were more likely to develop an injury (HR: 2.294, 95% CI=2.229 to 2.361, P<0.001) after adjusting for sex, age, monthly income, urbanization level, geographic region, and comorbidities. Psychotropic medications in the subjects with dementia were associated with the risk of injury (adjusted HR=0.217, 95%CI: 0.206 to 0.228, P<0.001). Cognitive enhancers, including acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and memantine, were associated with the risk of injury in the study subjects after being adjusted for all comorbidities and medications (adjusted HR=0.712(95% CI=0.512 to 0.925, P<0.01)). In conclusion, patients who suffered dementia had a higher risk of developing injury, and the cognitive enhancers were associated with the decreased risk of injury.
Fibromyalgia and Risk of Dementia - A Nationwide, Population-Based, Cohort Study
(2018-02-01)
Tzeng, Nian-Sheng
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Chung, Chi-Hsiang
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Liu, Feng-Cheng
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Chiu, Yu-Hsiang
;
Chang, Hsin-An
Background: Fibromyalgia is a syndrome of chronic pain and other symptoms and is associated with patient discomfort and other diseases. This nationwide matched-cohort population-based study aimed to investigate the association between fibromyalgia and the risk of developing dementia, and to clarify the association between fibromyalgia and dementia. Materials and Methods: A total of 41,612 patients of age >50 years with newly diagnosed fibromyalgia between January 1, and December 31, 2000 were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, along with 124,836 controls matched for sex and age. After adjusting for any confounding factors, Fine and Gray competing risk analysis was used to compare the risk of developing dementia during the 10 years of follow-up. Results: Of the study subjects, 1,704 from 41,612 fibromyalgia patients (21.23 per 1,000 person-years) developed dementia when compared to 4,419 from 124,836 controls (18.94 per 1,000 person-years). Fine and Gray competing risk analysis revealed that the study subjects were more likely to develop dementia (hazard ratio: 2.29, 95% CI: 2.16-2.42; P < 0.001). After adjusting for sex, age, monthly income, urbanization level, geographic region of residence and comorbidities the hazard ratio was 2.77 (95% CI: 2.61-2.95, P < 0.001). Fibromyalgia was associated with increased risk of all types of dementia in this study. Conclusion: The study subjects with fibromyalgia had a 2.77-fold risk of dementia in comparison to the control group. Therefore, further studies are needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of the association between fibromyalgia and the risk of dementia.
Forensic Evaluations for Offenders With Dementia in Taiwan's Criminal Courts
(2018-03-01)
Wang, Hui-Yi
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Chen, Jiun-Hsiung
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Huang, San-Yuan
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Yeh, Hui-Wen
;
Mao, Wei-Chung
Dementia is an increasing world-wide health problem, and the association between dementia and adjudication of crimes has rarely been studied. The data in this study are described and analyzed by gender, psychiatric diagnosis, type of crime, and the acceptance rate by the courts of opinions tendered by forensic psychiatric examiners. The source data are derived from the databank of the Judicial Yuan (Judicial Department) of the Republic of China Law and Regulations Retrieval System. There was a male predominance of 85.1 percent. Larceny (42.6%) was the most frequent crime. There was also a high judicial acceptance rate of 91.5 percent of the professional opinions received from forensic psychiatric evaluators who examined defendants at the request of the courts. Psychiatrists play an important role in providing their professional opinions for the Taiwanese courts with regard to adjudication of evaluees with dementia. Most courts accepted psychiatrists' professional opinions about offenders with dementia, and the rate of acceptance was reflected in the judicial rulings of criminal responsibility.
Increased Risk of Psychiatric Disorders in Allergic Diseases: A Nationwide, Population-Based, Cohort Study
(2018-04-24)
Tzeng, Nian-Sheng
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Chang, Hsin-An
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Chung, Chi-Hsiang
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Kao, Yu-Chen
;
Chang, Chuan-Chia
Background/objective: Allergic diseases, such as bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and psychiatric disorders, are major health issues. There have been reports that allergic diseases were associated with depression or anxiety disorders. This study aimed to investigate the association between these allergic diseases and the risk of developing overall psychiatric disorders in patients from Taiwan. Methods: This cohort study used the database of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. A total of 186,588 enrolled patients, with 46,647 study subjects who had suffered from allergic diseases, and 139,941 controls matched for sex and age, from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Dataset of 2000-2015, were selected from a sub-dataset of the National Health Insurance Research Database. Fine and Gray's competing risk model analysis was used to explore the hazard ratio (HR), and 95% confidence interval, for the risk of allergic diseases being associated with the risk of developing psychiatric disorders during the 15 years of follow-up. Results: Of the study subjects, 5,038 (10.8%) developed psychiatric disorders when compared to 9,376 (6.7%) in the control group, with significant difference (p < 0.001). Fine and Gray's competing risk model analysis revealed that the adjusted HR was 1.659 (95% Cl = 1.602-1.717, p < 0.001). In this study, we found that the groups of atopic dermatitis alone and the allergic rhinitis + atopic dermatitis were associated with a lower risk of psychiatric disorders, but all the other four groups, such as bronchial asthma alone, allergic rhinitis alone, bronchial asthma + allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma + atopic dermatitis, and the combination of all these three allergic diseases, were associated with a higher risk of psychiatric disorders. Conclusion: Allergic diseases are therefore associated with a 1.66-fold increased hazard of psychiatric disorders in Taiwan.
Magnesium oxide use and reduced risk of dementia: a retrospective, nationwide cohort study in Taiwan
(2018-01-01)
Tzeng, Nian-Sheng
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Chung, Chi-Hsiang
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Lin, Fu-Huang
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Huang, Ching-Feng
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Yeh, Chin-Bin
Objective: Dietary magnesium may be associated with a lower risk of dementia; however, the impact of magnesium oxide (MgO), a common laxative, on dementia has yet to be elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the association between the usage of MgO and the risk of developing dementia. Methods: We used a dataset from the National Health Research Institute Database (NHRID) of Taiwan containing one million randomly sampled subjects to identify patients aged >= 50 years with no history of MgO usage. A total of 1547 patients who had used MgO were enrolled, along with 4641 controls who had not used the MgO propensity score matched by age, gender and comorbidity, at a ratio of 1:3. After adjusting for confounding risk factors, a Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare the risk of developing dementia during a 10 year follow-up period. Results: Of the enrolled patients, 44 (2.84%) developed dementia, when compared to 199 (4.28%) in the control group. The Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that the patients who had used MgO were less likely to develop dementia with a crude hazard ratio of 0.617 (95% CI, 0.445-0.856, p=.004). After adjusting for age, gender, comorbidity, geographical area and urbanization level of residence, and monthly income, the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.517 (95% CI, 0.412-0.793, p=.001). Conclusions: The patients who used MgO had a decreased risk of developing dementia. Further studies on the effects of MgO in reducing the risk of dementia are therefore warranted.
Risk of dementia after charcoal-burning suicide attempts: a nationwide cohort study in Taiwan
(2018-10-01)
Chang, Shan-Yueh
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Chien, Wu-Chien
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Chung, Chi-Hsiang
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Chang, Hsin-An
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Kao, Yu-Chen
This study aimed to investigate the association between charcoal-burning suicide attempts and the risk of developing dementia. A nationwide, matched cohort, population-based study enrolled a total of 4103 patients with newly diagnosed charcoal-burning suicide attempts, between 2000 and 2010, which were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, along with 12,309 controls matched for sex and age. After adjusting for confounding factors, Fine and Gray's competing risk analysis was used to compare the risk of developing dementia during the 10-year followup period. Of the enrolled patients (n=16,412), dementia developed in 303 (1.85%), including 2.56% in the study group (105 in 4103) and 1.61% (198 in 12,309) in the control group. The Fine and Gray's survival analysis revealed that the patients with charcoal-burning suicide attempts were likely to develop dementia, with a crude HR of 5.170 (95% CI 4.022 to 6.644, p<0.001). After adjusting for age, sex, comorbidity, geographic area and urbanization level of residence, and monthly insured premium, the adjusted HR was 4.220 (95% CI 3.188 to 5.586, p<0.001). Suicide attempts were associated with an increased risk of degenerative dementia in this study. Patients with charcoal-burning suicide attempts had a fourfold risk of dementia than the control group.
Risk of Dementia in Adults With ADHD: A Nationwide, Population-Based Cohort Study in Taiwan
(2019-07-01)
Tzeng, Nian-Sheng
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Chung, Chi-Hsiang
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Lin, Fu-Huang
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Yeh, Chin-Bin
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Huang, San-Yuan
Objective:This study aimed to investigate the association between adults with ADHD and the risk of developing dementia. Method: Utilizing National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, ADHD patients were identified and compared with age- and gender-matched controls (1:3). Results: Of the study participants, 37 (5.48%) developed dementia compared with 81 (4.0%) in the control group. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that the study participants were more likely to develop dementia. The crude hazard ratio (HR) is 3.418 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [2.289, 5.106], p < .001), and adjusted HR is 4.008 (95% CI = [2.526, 6.361], p < .001) in risk of developing dementia after adjusted for age, gender, comorbidities, geographical area of residence, urbanization level of residence, and monthly income. Conclusion: Adults with ADHD have a 3.4-fold risk of developing dementia, and other large or national data sets should be explored to support the current findings.
Risk of psychiatric disorders in pulmonary embolism: a nationwide cohort study
(2019-08-01)
Tzeng, Nian-Sheng
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Chung, Chi-Hsiang
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Chang, Shan-Yueh
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Yeh, Chin-Bin
;
Lu, Ru-Band
This study aims to investigate the association between pulmonary embolism (PE) and the risk of psychiatric disorders. A total of 21,916 patients aged >= 20 years with PE between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2015, were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, along with 65,748 (1:3) controls matched for sex and age. Cox regression model revealed the crude HR was 1.539 (95% CI 1.481 to 1.599; p<0.001), and after adjusting all the covariates, the adjusted HR was 1.704 (95% CI 1.435 to 1.991, p<0.001), for the risk of psychiatric disorders in the PE cohort. PE was associated with the overall psychiatric disorders, dementia, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders, after the exclusion of the psychiatric diagnoses in the first year. PE was associated with the overall psychiatric disorders, dementia, anxiety, and depression, after the exclusion of the psychiatric diagnoses in the first 5years. The patients with PE were associated with psychiatric disorders. This finding could serve as a reminder to the physicians to be more watchful and aware in the long-term follow-up of patients with PE for their care and potential mental health problems.
Stress, Sleep and Depressive Symptoms in Active Duty Military Personnel
(2016-08)
Chou, Han-Wei
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Tzeng, Wen-Chii
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Chou, Yu-Ching
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Yeh, Hui-Wen
;
Chang, Hsin-An
Background: The military is a unique occupational group and, because of this, military personnel face different kinds of stress than civilian populations. Sleep problems are an example. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between sleep problems, depression level and coping strategies among military personnel. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, military personnel completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Jalowiec Coping Scale. Results: An evaluation of the test scores showed that officers had better sleep quality and fewer depressive symptoms than enlisted personnel. Military personnel with higher educational levels and less physical illness also had fewer depressive symptoms. Officers and noncommissioned officers preferred problem-focused strategies. Those with higher Beck Depression Inventory and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores and those who drank alcohol frequently preferred affective-focused strategies. conclusions: Our results revealed that sleep quality, physical illness and alcohol consumption were associated with the mental health of military personnel. Treating these factors may improve the mental health of military personnel and enhance effective coping strategies.