Placebo effects in IBS clinical trials measuring a global outcome are highly variable. Entry criteria and number of office visits are significant predictors of the placebo response. More stringent entry criteria and an increased number of office visits appear to independently decrease the placebo response.

The purpose of this survey was to obtain information on the prevalence, costs, and patterns of use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in a general population in the Republic of Korea. In 2006, we conducted nationwide and population-weighted personal interviews with 6,021 adults ranging from 30 to 69 yr of age; the final sample consisted of 3,000 people with a 49.8% response rate. In addition to their general socio-demographics, the respondents were asked about their use of CAM during the previous 12-month period, costs, sources of information, and reasons for use. The prevalence of use overall was 74.8%, while biologically based CAM therapies were the most likely type of use (65.4%). The median annual out-of-pocket expenditures for CAM therapies was about US$203. The primary reason for using CAM was for disease prevention and health promotion (78.8%). The main source of advice about CAM therapies use was most likely to be from family and friends (66.9%). Our study suggests that CAM use has been and continues to be very popular in South Korea. Conventional western medical doctors and governments should obtain more evidence and become more interested in CAM therapies.

Our findings provide new evidence of abnormal thalamic volume in pediatric TS.

Increasing evidence has suggested an association between dietary magnesium intake and metabolic syndrome. However, previous research examining dietary magnesium intake and metabolic syndrome has produced mixed results. Our objective was to determine the relationship between dietary magnesium intake and metabolic syndrome in the adult population using a dose-response meta-analysis. We searched the PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library databases from August, 1965, to May, 2014. Observational studies reporting risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for metabolic syndrome in ≥3 categories of dietary magnesium intake levels were selected. The data extraction was performed independently by two authors, and the quality of the studies was evaluated using the Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for Nonrandomized Studies (RoBANS). Based on eight cross-sectional studies and two prospective cohort studies, the pooled relative risks of metabolic syndrome per 150 mg/day increment in magnesium intake was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.84–0.93; I2 = 36.3%). The meta-regression model showed a generally linear, inverse relationship between magnesium intake (mg/day) and metabolic syndrome. This dose-response meta-analysis indicates that dietary magnesium intake is significantly and inversely associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome. However, randomized clinical trials will be necessary to address the issue of causality and to determine whether magnesium supplementation is effective for the prevention of metabolic syndrome.

INTRODUCTIONTourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset movement disorder entailing vocal tics and multiple motor tics (1). Although the definite pathophysiology of TS is not yet known, there is a hypothesis that the basal ganglia and related thalamocortical circuitry are involved (2, 3).Most of the existing structural neuroimaging studies on TS were on the basal ganglia, corpus callosum, and lateral ventricle (4-10). Functional neuroimaging studies of TS using positron emission tomography (PET) suggest that the cortical system (especially, the frontal lobe area) is related with the pathophysiology of TS (11)(12)(13)(14). However, structural neuroimaging studies of TS on the cerebrum are rare, and a recent regional cerebral volumetric study reported that the broadly distributed cortical systems are involved in the pathophysiology of TS (15). Compared with controls, TS subjects were found to have larger volumes in the dorsal prefrontal regions, and larger volumes in the parieto-occipital regions, but smaller volumes in the inferior occipital regions. Nevertheless, the gray matter and white matter were not segmented in previous cerebral neuroimaging studies, needing studies on whether the pathophysiology of TS is related with the gray matter or the white matter. Previous studies posed many problems related with study methods since they did not control the effect of the disorders that frequently accompany TS including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD), and various confounding variables including drug-effect, age, sex, and handedness that could affect neuroimaging studies (3).Traditionally, the cerebellum has been viewed as a motor coordination center (16). Studies are also needed on the cerebellum related with TS since TS is basically a movement disorder and abnormality is reported in the cerebellar vermal area in patients with ADHD, which frequently accompany TS (17, 18). However, no neuroimaging study on TS related with the cerebellum has been reported according in the literature.This structural neuroimaging study of segmented regional cerebral and cerebellar volumes tested the following three hypotheses; 1) The segmented cerebral regional volumes (especially, the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and occipital lobe) J Korean Med Sci 2002; 17: 530-6 ISSN 1011-8934 Copyright � The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences 530The Segmented Regional Volumes of the Cerebrum and Cerebellum in Boys with Tourette SyndromeNeuropathological deficits are an etiological factor in Tourette syndrome (TS), and implicate a network linking the basal ganglia and the cerebrum, not a particular single brain region. In this study, the volumes of 20 cerebral and cerebellar regions and their symmetries were measured in normal boys and TS boys by brain magnetic resonance imaging. Brain magnetic resonance images were obtained prospectively in 19 boys with TS and 17 age-matched normal control boys. Cerebral and cerebellar regions were segmented to gray and white fractions using algorithm for ...