It is important to improve perinatal care for women who have received assisted reproductive technology and their partners. Therefore, we report nursing care professionals' views on the psychological characteristics of pregnant and postpartum women who underwent fertility treatment and their partners, as well as a comparison with those of women who became pregnant naturally. We sent a questionnaire to 1,083 nursing care professionals (935 midwives and 148 nurses) working in advanced facilities for assisted reproductive technology by mail. The results of the survey are as follows: 1. Both pregnant/postpartum women and their partners in the fertility treatment group were in a more negative emotional state than those in the natural pregnancy group. While pregnant/postpartum women in both groups expressed a similar level of positive feelings, their partners in the treatment group showed positive emotions more strongly. 2. Pregnant/postpartum women expressed both positive and negative feelings more strongly than their partners in both (treatment and natural pregnancy) groups. 3. A larger number of midwives or those with experience of providing care for pregnant women who underwent fertility treatment, compared to nurses or those without such experience, stated that pregnant/postpartum women and their partners expressed both positive and negative feelings. In other words, nursing care professionals who interacted with a larger number of pregnant/postpartum women and their partners were better able to identify their psychological characteristics.

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One of the methods of changing one's appearance to meet social expectations is by modifying parts of the body that are perceived as unattractive. Present-day society is placing an increasing emphasis on the importance of looking good. In order to investigate characteristics of women's attitudes toward body modification for beauty purposes, we developed "the attitudes toward body modification for beauty purposes scale (BMB)" and it turned out to comprise two factors: Recognition of usefulness and expectations from the result and Indifference to guilty conscience or artificiality. This clearly reveals that a woman feels conflicted between the above two aspects of body modification. It is noteworthy that with the exception of the several body modifications, the first factor (recognition of usefulness and expectations from the result) of BMB was essential to the intention of undergoing body modifications and the second factor (indifference to a guilty conscience or artificiality) of BMB was related to relatively risky body modifications. By a comparative examination on BMB in relation to a list of 12 body modifications between the Korean and Japanese groups, we could infer that familiarity with certain body modifications can increase the level of acceptance of body modifiability. And attitudes toward body modification for beauty and control belief which mainly concerns weight were suggested to be different.

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This study investigated Quality of Life (QOL) in Eating Disorders (ED) patients and the factors affected to QOL in ED. Seventy-six ED patients (three males and 73 females, 25.96±6.97 years) and 36 healthy controls (36 females, 21.77±6.68 years) completed the self-reported questionnaires of World Health Organization Quality of Life 26 (QOL-26), State-Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). The scores of QOL-26 in ED patients were significantly lower than those in healthy controls (all p<.001). In ED patients, t-test for with and without binge-eating revealed that the score for "total" domain of QOL-26 in ED patients with binge-eating behavior was significantly lower (p<.05). Multiple regression analyses showed that binge-eating behavior and CES-D scores were associated with the scores of QOL-26 (all p<.001). Our study showed QOL in ED patients was significantly poorer than that in controls and keeping QOL in ED patients might suggest absence of concerns of illness. Furthermore, it was suggested that improvements of depressive mood are important for not only the recovery from ED symptoms but also QOL improvements in ED patients.

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This study aimed at examining the relationship between perfectionism cognition and dieting behavior and abnormal eating behavior observed in the eating disorder tendency in adolescent females. One hundred and eighty-three female undergraduate and graduate students of a BMI of 24 or lower, meaning a thin or normal figure, filled out the following questionnaires: 1) the Self-Oriented Perfectionism Scale; 2) the Multidimentional Perfectionism Cognitive Inventory (MPCI); 3) the Dieting Behavior Scale (DBS); 4) the Eating Attitude Test-26; and 5) the Overeating, a subscale of the Eating Disorder Inventory. Results showed that the scores on all subscales of the MPCI, namely, Personal Standards (PS), Pursuit of Perfection (PP) and Concern over Mistakes (CM), were correlated with dieting behavior and abnormal eating behavior. Multiple regression analysis revealed that PP affected unhealthy dieting behavior, and that CM influenced abnormal eating behavior. The authors conducted cluster analysis on the DBS scores and found four clusters. The healthy dieting group and unhealthy dieting group scored higher on PS and PP than the average dieting group and no dieting group did. These results suggest that, to prevent eating disorder, it is useful to intervene different perfectionism cognitions considering the dieting pattern and degree of abnormal eating behavior.

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In Kagawa Prefectural Central Hospital, I provided consultations as a psychiatrist at a female's outpatient clinic over a period of two years and six months from October 2005 to March 2008. For the purpose of elucidating what is required of a psychiatrist at a female's outpatient clinic, the patients were compared based on differences in the presence or absence of history of visiting psychiatric clinics. In cases with no history of visiting a psychiatric clinic, the patients were in their 50s and the answers observed at a significantly higher rate were: adjustment disorders and "I did not know which department to visit". In cases with a history of visiting psychiatric clinics, the answers observed at a significantly higher rate were: recurrent depression, "the author continuously consulted the psychiatric clinic of another hospital", and "second opinion". At a female's outpatient clinic, psychiatrists are required to take the role of a "contacts for psychiatric care", for patients who have never visited a psychiatric department. On the other hand, they are required to take the role of a "second opinion" and "informative provider of special knowledge", for patients who have visited a psychiatric department before.

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To clarify the association between swelling of the lower limbs and fatigue, we performed a questionnaire survey involving 153 cosmetic sales women. The regions with fatigue and swelling overlapped in many cases. The body region in which the subjects most frequently felt fatigue and swelling was the calf, and 78 and 85% of the respondents felt fatigue and swelling of this region, respectively. Sixty-seven and 66% of them expressed the causes of discomfort of swelling and fatigue with size and pain as their characteristics, respectively. Based on these findings, we prepared a 20-item visual analogue scale (VAS). We applied the prepared VAS to 19 women who worked standing up and sitting at a desk. VAS measurement was performed and the results were compared between pre- and post-works and between standing and sitting positions. The discomfort level significantly increased in 16 items after work in all subjects. On analysis based on the working posture, elevation of the discomfort level after work was significantly greater in the standing-up group than in the desk-work group with regard to the following 6 items: increased ankle and calf circumferences, heavy legs, and pain of the calves, ankles, and arches.

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