Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program on psychiatric symptoms, global functioning, life satisfaction, and recovery-promoting relationships among individuals with mental illness. Methods: Participants were patients at the Suwon Mental Health Center. Thirty-two patients were part of the ACT program and 32 patients matched for age, sex, and mental illness were in a standard case-management program and served as a control group. Follow-up with patients occurred every 3 months during the 15 months after a baseline interview. Participants completed the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale, and Recovery-Promoting Relationship Scale (RPRS). Results: No significant differences were noted in the sociodemographic characteristics of the ACT and the case-management group. According to the BPRS, the ACT group showed a significant reduction in symptom severity, but the ACT program was not significantly more effective at reducing psychiatric symptoms from baseline to the 15-month follow-up compared to the case-management approach. The ACT group showed more significant improvement than the control group in terms of the GAF Scale. Both groups showed no significant differences in the change of life satisfaction and in the change of recovery-promoting relationships. We observed a significant increase in recovery-promoting relationships in the control group, but the degree of change of recovery-promoting relationships through time flow between groups was not significantly different. Discussion: In this study, we observed that ACT was significantly better at improving the GAF than case management and that participation in ACT was associated with a significant decrease in BPRS scores. However, ACT did not demonstrate an absolute superiority over the standard case-management approach in terms of the BPRS and the measures of life satisfaction and recovery-promoting relationships. Conclusions: ACT may have some advantages over a standard case management approach.

Introduction Obesity is an increasingly common chronic disease. Its biopsychosocial basis provides the rationale of multidisciplinary interventions, such as Therapeutic Patient Education (TPE, WHO 1998), which is effective for lifestyle change and awareness improvement, thus reducing the disease's prevalence and its health care-related financial burden. However, patients' sociodemographic and psychopathological factors may influence TPE's effectiveness. Objectives/Aims We aimed to assess the effectiveness of an 8week TPE program in obese patients candidates for bariatric surgery and identify factors predicting its success. Methods We enrolled 159 patients with a BMI > 35 Kg/m 2 and obesity-related comorbidities (females = 71.3%; age range = 18-35 years) at the C.A.S.C.O. (EASO COMs) of our University Hospital. They filled out the Binge Eating Scale (BES), the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), and the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36). We used Tukey's multiple comparison test to assess Quality of Life (QoL) improvement after TPE and multivariate logistic regression to estimate the size of the association between TPE and the aforementioned factors. ResultsThe SF-36 showed a significant improvement (P < 0.05) of physical and mental QoL post-TPE, especially in obese patients without binge eating disorder. The same applied to BES and SCL-90-R scores. The factors predicting TPE success were a short duration of obesity, a limited number of past diets, and low levels of anxiety/depression pre-TPE. Conclusions In obese patients candidates for bariatric surgery, TPE is useful to improve physical and mental QoL, eating behavior, and psychological status. Several factors are predictive of TPE success, allowing a personalization of the intervention to render it more effective. Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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IntroductionThe systematized and proper sized research of alcohol pharmacokinetics in Korean has not reported ever.Objectives and aimAim of this study is to measure the β value and alcohol pharmacokinetic factors in Korean adult female and the relationship between the β value and some variables including age, smoking, total body water, drinking capacity, BMI, blood cholesterol, body fat and body fat ratio.MethodsNinety-one subjects were randomly divided into two groups. One group was provided as much as 0.35 mg/mL/kg of alcohol and the other as much as 0.70 mg/mL/kg, and blood alcohol concentration was measured 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 min after the women finished drinking.ResultsThe subjects’ mean alcohol elimination rate (β) was −0.002379 mg/100 mL·h, and there was no statistically significant difference in elimination rate between the two groups. The mean time to reach maximum blood alcohol concentration was 45 minutes, alcohol absorption rate was 0.1123 ± 0.1799 g/L/min, and the area under the concentration curve was 109.15 ± 62.95. Among the factors that correlated with alcohol metabolism, alcohol absorption rate and follicle-stimulating hormone were statistically significant, but age, body mass index, and body fat percentage were not significantly correlated with alcohol metabolism.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the β values for healthy Korean females can differ from the cut-offs that are currently used in Korea, which suggests that the legal limit for driving under intoxication should be adjusted.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

IntroductionAlcohol intoxication is often involved in the commission of criminal behaviors that are risky and involve personal confrontation. Individuals who reported having three or more drinks before driving exhibited greater impulsivity when under the influence of alcohol than did those who did not report heavy drinking before driving.ObjectivesThe present study utilized the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) to compare the characteristics of individuals with a single driving while intoxicated (DWI) offense with individuals who were multiple DWI offenders and to identify whether there was a typical profile for multiple offenders.MethodsThe charts of patients were examined in terms of demographic characteristics including age, sex, employment, and education; the MMPI scores of the two groups were compared using an independent t-test, and we identified the typical profile of multiple DWI offenders by using hierarchical cluster analysis with Ward's method.ResultsScores on the F and the depression (D) scales of the MMPI-2 were significantly higher among multiple offenders than among first offenders. The multiple offenders-I group obtained relatively high scores on the D and psychopathic deviate (Pd) scales, and the multiple offenders-II group had low scores on both the hypomania (Ma) and social introversion (Si) scales. Thus, some multiple offenders may have poorer emotional adjustment, characterized by tendencies toward psychopathic deviance, mania, and depression, as well as psychopathological characteristics associated with patients with alcohol-use disorders.ConclusionThe present findings suggest that multiple offenders should be considered a high-risk group for alcohol-use disorders and recurrent drunken driving.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.