bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Explaining non‐help‐seeking amongst young adults with mental distress: a dynamic interpretive model of illness behaviour
Authors: Biddle Lucy , Donovan Jenny , Sharp Debbie , Gunnell David 
Published: August 2010

AbstractMental disorder is common amongst young adults and is associated with many adverse outcomes. Data, however, indicate that young adults are particularly unlikely to seek help for such distress. This paper describes a qualitative study of 23 young adults (aged 16 to 24 years) with mental distress. Interviewing was used to obtain detailed narratives of illness behaviour and to explore reasons for non‐help‐seeking. Help‐seekers and non‐help‐seekers were interviewed. The findings allowed development of an explanatory model – the cycle of avoidance (COA) – which contributes towards attempts to provide a dynamic understanding of help‐seeking behaviour. Dominant approaches tend to be deterministic and static and to account for non‐help‐seeking in terms of ‘barriers’ to care, which although easily translated into targets for policy intervention, are superficial representations of complex issues. The COA conceptualises help‐seeking as a circular process and offers a model of ‘non‐help‐seeking’ in which lay conceptions of mental distress, the social meanings attached to ‘help‐seeking’ and treatment, and the purposeful action of individuals, assume central importance. Although derived in the context of young adulthood and mental distress, this model may have wider applicability as a theoretical template for explaining non‐help‐seeking in other age groups and conditions, and other illness behaviours.
Consent and nothing but consent? The organ retention scandal
Authors: Sheach Leith Valerie M. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThe organ retention scandal arose in the UK in the autumn of 1999 when knowledge of the practice of organ and tissue retention after post‐mortem for subsequent diagnostic, teaching, audit and research purposes fully entered the public domain. Many families were shocked and distressed to realise that by allowing a post‐mortem on their relative or child they were also deemed to have agreed to the long‐term retention of organs and tissues and thus had buried or cremated, as they perceived it, not a ‘whole’ body but an ‘empty shell’. Subsequently, informed consent was placed at the centre of recommendations for reform, now given expression in the Human Tissue Act (2004). Through a discourse analysis of the documentary evidence produced in the wake of the organ retention scandal, I argue that the emphasis on informed consent masks concerns about body wholeness. In addition, whilst informed consent is posited as key in ‘balancing’ the rights of the individual over the needs of medical science, this position is tempered by the concurrent presence of notions of the gift relationship and post‐mortem citizenship. Incorporating these notions alongside the discourse of consent also renders concerns about the commodification of the body less acute.
Obesity and household roles: gender and social class in Morocco
Authors: Batnitzky Adina 
Published: August 2010

AbstractOften referred to as the developing world's new burden of disease, obesity constitutes a major and growing health epidemic in Morocco, in particular for women (22% of women versus 8% of men). Through an analysis of qualitative data, I demonstrate how gender roles influence obesity risk in the Moroccan context. Current social and economic theories, including the nutrition transition theory, are inadequate in explaining the persistent gender differentials in health status across time and place. I suggest that Moroccan women's higher prevalence of obesity is predominantly the outcome of different risks acquired from their distinct roles. In the Moroccan context, we can gain insight into how men and women divide household labour and how the overall non‐egalitarian nature of social roles may deleteriously affect women's health. I hypothesise that marital status, age and socioeconomic status determine Moroccan women's household roles and help to explain why women are more likely to be obese than men. The main findings support this hypothesis and demonstrate the interactive relationship between culture and structure in influencing obesity risk.
Redefining a technology: public and private genetic testing in Aotearoa New Zealand
Authors: Scott Anne , Du Plessis Rosemary 
Published: August 2010

AbstractIn the last ten years there has been a rapid expansion in the number of genetic tests and increased interest in accessing the information available through these tests. The expansion of access to genetic testing occurs against the background of mixed systems for delivering health services, including DNA testing. This paper draws on theory relating to the social shaping of technologies and the concept of technological ‘scripts’ to offer a critical analysis of recent debate in Aotearoa New Zealand about private provision of genetic testing. An apparent ‘turf war’ between professionals about who will provide genetic tests obscures attention to a more serious issue – the redefinition of a technology. What is at stake is not just who will do the tests, but what technology is available – either genetic testing as a commodity, or an integrated set of genetic services. While focused on a particular national context, this paper addresses issues relevant to the provision of genetic services in other nation states characterised by a mixture of public and private provision of health services.
The moral economy of selfhood and caring: negotiating boundaries of personal care as embodied moral practice
Authors: Chattoo Sangeeta , Ahmad Waqar I.U. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThis paper engages with the dichotomous notions of caring underpinning social policy and practice in Britain, that splits up the ‘carer’ and ‘cared for’ into autonomous, unitary subjects, by locating personal care as an embodied, moral practice within a theoretical framework of relational ontology. Drawing on empirical accounts and narratives related to personal care within the context of advanced cancer, we argue that personal care involves negotiation of boundaries between notions of relatedness and legitimate dependence on one hand, and independence and integrity of the embodied self on the other; and we analyse how these boundaries are informed by particular cultural or religious scripts on gender, relatedness, conjugality and filial obligations. The paper draws on data and analysis based on observations and in‐depth interviews with White and South Asian participants between 19 and 89 years of age receiving treatment for cancer, and family members closely involved in their personal care. In using a comparative method for analysis and understanding caring as an embodied moral practice and site of subjectivity across cultural/religious groups, it is suggested that ethnicity is not necessarily the only useful analytical concept to explore the illness and caring experiences of research participants from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Health inequalities according to educational level in different welfare regimes: a comparison of 23 European countries
Authors: Eikemo Terje A. , Huisman Martijn , Bambra Clare , Kunst Anton E. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThe object of this study was to determine whether the magnitude of educational health inequalities varies between European countries with different welfare regimes. The data source is based on the first and second wave of the European Social Survey. The first health indicator describes people's mental and physical health in general, while the second reports cases of any limiting longstanding illness. Educational inequalities in health were measured as the difference in health between people with an average number of years of education and people whose educational years lay one standard deviation below the national average. Moreover, South European welfare regimes had the largest health inequalities, while countries with Bismarckian welfare regimes tended to demonstrate the smallest. Although the other welfare regimes ranked relatively close to each other, the Scandinavian welfare regimes were placed less favourably than the Anglo‐Saxon and East European. Thus, this study shows an evident patterning of magnitudes of health inequalities according to features of European welfare regimes. Although the greater distribution of welfare benefits within the Scandinavian countries are likely to have a protective effect for disadvantaged cities in these countries, other factors such as relative deprivation and class‐patterned health behaviours might be acting to widen health inequalities.
Childbirth embodiment: problematic aspects of current understandings
Authors: Walsh Denis J. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThe experience of childbirth is one of the most corporeal of the human condition. Against a backdrop of profound change in the milieu of birthing over the past 30 years, especially in the developed world, a number of discourses now compete for the status of the safest, most fulfilling birth experience. Supporters of biomedical and ‘natural’ approaches make their respective claims to those, with obstetricians broadly aligning their professional interests with the former and midwives with the latter. There is mounting evidence that childbearing women’s experiences of birth are often shaped in the uneasy space between the two. Within sociological discourse in health, embodiment is a dominant theme but, to date, research has concentrated mainly on new reproductive technologies, and there is a dearth of recent research and theorising around the act of parturition itself. This paper argues that because of this, there has been a polarising tendency in current discourses which is having a largely negative impact on women, professionals and the maternity services. A call is made for an integration of traditional childbirth embodiment theories, mediated through compassionate, relationally focused maternity care, especially when labour complications develop.
Questioning the answer: questioning style, choice and self‐determination in interactions with young people with intellectual disabilities*
Authors: Pilnick Alison , Clegg Jennifer , Murphy Elizabeth , Almack Kathryn 
Published: August 2010

AbstractFor young people with intellectual disabilities (ID), the transition from children’s to adult services has long been recognised as a challenging move. One of the aims of the White Paper Valuing People (2001) was to address some of the problems associated with this transition. This paper reports on data from a project which examines the impact of these service changes, and the ways in which transition is negotiated by carers, professionals and users. It presents a conversation analysis of eight tape‐recorded formal review meetings at which transition to adult services is discussed. It takes as its starting point the existing interactional work on ID and the way in which this demonstrates the effects of the local and contextual specifics of particular kinds of interaction on the eventual outcomes (e.g. Rapley 2004, Antaki 2001, Maynard and Marlaire 1992). We show that an attempt to allow self‐determination in the context of transitions can paradoxically result in undermining user choice and control. We also argue that, while a rule‐based approach to practice may offer moral clarity for professionals, it can result in interactional and practical difficulties which cannot be easily reconciled.
Pemphigoid gestationis
Authors: Jenkins Rachel E. , Shornick Jeff K. , Black Martin M. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractPG is a rare autoimmune bullous dermatosis of pregnancy that is characterised by linear deposition of C3, and occasionally IgG1 along the BMZ of lesional, perilesional and clinically normal skin when examined by direct immunofluorescence. Frequently there is a circulating IgG1 autoantibody (PG factor) directed against a BMZ antigen that avidly binds complement.The aberrant expression of MHC class II molecules in the placenta is important in triggering the immune response against a glycoprotein of 180 kDa found in the lamina lucida of the basement membrane of the amnion which cross reacts with that in the skin. The deposition of immune reagents in the placentae in PG has been implicated in the placental dysfunction and impaired foetal outcome which has been shown to occur in PG, Al present immunofluorescence is the key to differentiating PG from other clinically similar diseases.
Morsus insecti from flea bites: seasonal appearance and relation to sex and age of flea‐exposed persons
Authors: Hallas T.E. , Roesdahl K. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractObjectives To elucidate (1) the seasonal appearance of Morsus insecti from flea bites and (2)the prevalence of this disease in males and females.Material (1) 182 patients suspected of being bitten by fleas from dogs and/or cats and 9697 non‐patients complaining of ‘flea bites’ and (2) 514 non‐patients exposed to and bitten by (cat) fleas.Methods (1) Clinical examination of patients and microscopic investigation of fur samples from their pets and (2) inquiries about the sex and age of bitten vs non‐bitten members of the households.Results (1) Non‐patients are mainly affected by bird fleas from April to May and to cat fleas from August to October, as are patients, but examinations of fur gave insufficient verification in April‐May (expected) and in October (unexpected). (2) Children of both sexes (0–10 years) are equally bitten, but adult women are more often bitten (i.e., show Morsus insecti symptoms) than adult men.Conclusion (1) Examination of the patients' pets for signs of fleas is a useful diagnostic tool, but should be supplemented with knowledge of the seasonal appearance of flea bites. (2) It is necessary to elucidate why Morsus insecti from fleas preferentially appear in adult women. Some possible explanations are given, but none is conclusive.
Drugs against chloroquine antimalarial itch
Authors: Asawalam Beatrice , Osifo Nosakhare Guy , Haller Louis 
Published: August 2010

AbstractBackground Limb activity meters are useful in correlation with subjective measurements for studying the antipruritic effects of drugs against current chloroquine itch among patients with malarial fever, in a tropical environment.Objective To prospectively monitor the palliative effects of drugs, without any presumptively significant antipuritic effects known, against moderate to severe chloroquine‐related pruritus among patients with malaria.Methods Using a standard ordinal (0–10) scale questionnaire and limb activity meters on all limbs, 60 subjects (50 malarial patients plus 10 healthy controls; both sexes; aged 16–32 years) were recruited for study. Forty patients and the 10 healthy unmedicated controls completed the study and were used for data analysis.Results Dapsone (50 mg tablets, 8 hourly, orally) significantly reduced pruritus ordinal scores (below 2.5) and limb activity recordings to levels comparable with unmedicated controls by the second or third night of nocturnal monitoring the chloroquine itch among the patients. Clemastine or ketotifen (1 mg tablets, 8 hourly, orally) or prednisolone (5 mg tablets, 12 hourly, for 3 days, then tapered to 5 mg daily for another 2 days, orally), did not significantly exceed the placebo responsiveness to vitamin B‐comple.x tablets (one 8 hourly, orally, for 3 days).Conclusion Dapsone. or sulphapyridine (500 mg tablets, 6 hourly, orally daily for 5 days in another recent investigation) have now emerged as potent symptomatic palliatives against chloroquine pruritus.
Cyclosporin A in the treatment of severe allergic contact dermatitis
Authors: Flori Laura , Perotti Roberto , Mazzatenta Carlo , Andreassi Lucio 
Published: August 2010

AbstractBackground Allergic contact dermatitis is sometimes difficult to treat because the patients are unable to effect prevention. Contact dermatitis can then become chronic and progressive, posing serious therapeutic problems.Patients and Method Fifteen patients with severe allergic contact dermatitis were treated with cyclosporin A (CyA). All patients were polysensitized and unable to avoid with haptens for socioeconomic reasons. The drug was given orally at a dose of 5 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks followed by 3 mg/kg/day for a further 2 months. In three patients the treatment was continued for a further period of 60 days at 2 mg/kg/day.Results All patients responded well to the therapy and no side effects were observed. The manifestations of acute inflammation improved rapidly, whereas the signs of chronic reaction took longer to regress. At the end of treatment some subjects remained without lesions for up 6 months while others relapsed with mild forms. The recurrent dermatitis responded to a further cycle of CyA. Patch test reactions were only slightly modified after 30 days of treatment.Conclusion Our results qualify CyA as a new drug for the treatment of allergic contact dermatitis. It cannot be regarded as the elective treatment but it can be extremely useful in chronic and severe cases.
Combined retinoid plus surgical treatment of hypertrophic Darier's disease
Authors: Calderon M José , Landa Ncrea , Gardeazabal Jesús , Sueiro Fernando A. , Diaz‐Perez Jose L. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractA 28‐year‐old male with severe hypertrophic Darier's disease was successfully treated with a combination of retinoids, dermabrasion and surgical excision. No recurrences have been noted after a follow up of 2 years.
B‐Scanning assessment of the anti‐inflammatory activity of methylprednisolone aceponate on experimentally induced allergic reactions
Authors: Seidenari Stefania , Di Nardo Anna , Giannetti Alberto 
Published: August 2010

AbstractBackground The inhibitory activity of methylprednisolone aceponate (MPA) on experimentally induced allergic reactions was assessed by an echographic method employing a B‐scanner and a dedicated software, and compared to the effects of corticosteroids of known potency.Material and methods Experimental lesions, which were induced by patch testing 12 sensitized subjects with 5% nickel sulfate (pet.), were treated with two medications of different steroids (clobetasol propionate, fluocinolone acetonide, clobetasone butyrate, and methylprednisolone aceponate), performed 16 and 40 h after the application of the nickel patch tests. Clinical and echographic evaluations were carried out at the beginning of the experiment, and 64 hours after the induction of the reactions, Values of skin thickness and of extension of hypo‐reflecting dermal areas were determined by image processing on echographic recordings.Results Rank order of the potency of the tested corticostcroids, as evaluated by echography, was the same as the one obtained by visual scoring. MPA proved to be less effective than clobetasol propionate, more effective than clobetasone butyrate. and equally as effective as fluocinolone acetonide.Conclusion This experiment indicated MPA can be considered a potent steroid.
Cutaneous distribution of orally administered itraconazole in guinea pigs, studied by autoradiography
Authors: Stoppie Paul , Borghgraef Peter , Borgers Marcel 
Published: August 2010

AbstractBackground Itraconazole is an orally active antifungal lipophilic drug with high affinity for sebum and keratinocytes.Aim The aim of the study was to investigate the routes of percutaneous egression and the sites of cutaneous action/storage of 3H‐labelled itraconazole in an experimental animal model.Material and methods Hartley guinea pigs were dosed orally by gavage for 2 consecutive days at 10 mg/kg/day 3H‐itraconazole dissolved in polyethylene glycol 200. At various time points after the second gavage, small full‐thickness samples of dorsal skin were excised and processed using dry‐apposing autoradiography.Results Our research revealed an accumulation of silver grains over the epidermis and its appendages (hair follicle and sebaceous gland), the dermal fat tissue and the hypodermal muscle tissue on tissue sections at 6, 24 and 48 h time intervals, whereas at the remaining time points (96, 168 and 336 h) the silver grain density was markedly decreased to background level.Discussion The present histological distribution data support the current method of oral treatment with itraconazole as the treatment schedule of choice to eradicate infective organisms residing in the deeper skin layers.
Langerhans‐cell histiocytosis confined to the skin of an elderly patient
Authors: Pauluzzi Paolo , Trevisan Giusto , Sartori Paola 
Published: August 2010

AbstractLangerhans‐cell histiocytosis is a proliferative disorder of histiocytic cells that usually affects children during the first years of life. An unusual case of skin limited Langerhans‐cell histiocytosis in a 81‐year‐old man is presented. Mono‐organic involvement seems to be a sign of good prognosis, as is old age in such cases.
Examination of the dermal lymphatics in psoriasis⋆
Authors: Pençe Buket , Atakan Nilgön , Akkaya Sevinç , Gököz Aytac 
Published: August 2010

AbstractIn recent years, research on the aetiology of psoriasis has focused on immune aetiopathogenesis. However, in the last few years, research on the immunoloogical changes in psoriasis has failed to mention the lymphatics. Also, studies emphasizing the importance of the dermal lymphatics have neglected the lymphatic changes seen in psoriasis. Therefore, we decided to put this matter back on the agenda. Skin biopsies from 20 patients with psoriasis vulgaris were examined lymphatically by light microscopy using the orcein stain. We found a considerable increase in both number and dilatation in the lymphatics of psoriatic plaques, compared with both the clinically uninvolved skin of the psoriatic patients and also the skin of the control group.
Immediate hypersensitivity parameters in bullous pemphigoid
Authors: Katsantonis J.C. , Vlachonicolis I.G. , Papavasiliou E. , Tosca A.D. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractElevated serum IgE levels gave rise to the hypothesis that type 1 immune reaction is implicated in the pathology of Bullous Pemphigoid. IgE serum levels were estimated in 91 patients with Bullous Pemphigoid (BP) and in 26 healthy individuals. In 30 of the patients, the dermal mast cell infiltrate and peripheral blood eosinophils (%) were studied. Patients were subdivided in four groups according in diagnostic criteria or treatment. It was found that all patients, including those receiving treatment, had considerably elevated serum IgE compared to controls. Patients fulfilling all criteria had markedly increased IgE compared to those with negative indirect immunofluorescence. A significant correlation was found between serum IgE and dermal mast cell infiltrate but not between serum IgE and peripheral blood eosinophils, or between peripheral eosinophilia and dermal mast cells. Immediate hypersensitivity parameters, systemic or local, are apparently involved in BP lesion formation although to date it remains unknown at which particular step such parameters might be crucial. The possible biological significance of IgE overproduction and its interrelationship with local inflammatory cellular events is discussed.