BackgroundIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is common and often negatively affects quality of life. Patients frequently perceive medical interventions as inadequate and seek support from other sources, including online discussion forums.AimTo explore online discussion forum topics posted by people with IBS.Design & settingA qualitative study exploring three UK-based online discussion forums.MethodA scoping review identified UK-based discussion forums with high activity and frequent use, which did not require a password/registration to view posts (two IBS-specific and one general health forum). Internal search functions were used to identify and export relevant discussion threads relating to managing IBS. Inductive thematic analysis of exported discussions was undertaken.ResultsAnalysis identified two main overarching themes from 122 relevant discussion threads: 1) sharing information and practical advice about lifestyle changes; and 2) receiving emotional support. The most prevalent topics were lifestyle changes, including diet, using oral preparations (for example, supplements or probiotics), and physical activity. Dietary changes were usually considered positive, and most hopeful for potentially alleviating symptoms. Emotional support was also regularly offered with expressions of empathy, kindness, and gratitude, and a sense of users feeling less alone. Some discussions raised concern around potentially inappropriate symptomatic reassurance, and negative or conflicting advice.ConclusionOnline forums seem, generally, to be a positive experience for those posting, but include potential risks of misinformation. Most posts focus on symptomatic relief through lifestyle change and/or emotional support. Clinicians could gain a better understanding of patients’ ideas, concerns, and expectations of IBS diagnosis and management by asking about patient-acquired online forum information.
An 86-year-old man with a history of transfusion-dependent refractory anaemia presented with a 3á5´2á5 cm left chest wall mass. Histological examination of the excised tumour revealed a malignant lymphoma that was CD45, CD43 and BCL-2 positive and CD3 negative. He was treated with radiotherapy to the tumour site. Six months later the patient was admitted to the hospital with multiple erythematous plaque lesions on his upper trunk and lower extremities (top). White blood cell count was 95á1´10 9 ¤ l with 79% circulating lymphoma cells (bottom, Wright±Giemsa,´1600). Flow cytometry of these cells was positive for CD45, CD2, CD4 and CD56, but negative for CD3 and CD5. Such ®ndings are consistent with a diagnosis of blastic natural killer cell leukaemia ¤ lymphoma, a neoplasm that af¯icts elderly patients, has a propensity to involve the skin and may pursue an aggressive course culminating in acute leukaemia.
The subject of this article is the nexus of strategic political frameworks of the People's Republic of China that have informed the evolution of national cultural policy. The article underscores how cultural policy always was, and has remained, a central official mechanism for both national economic development and not (as is assumed) the dissemination and inculcation of political ideology. This article therefore attempts to address what it perceives to be the limited depth of Western contemporary cultural policy research on China — and its research agenda otherwise hostile to China’s communist government. The article’s principle purpose is therefore to identify the conditions by which cultural policy emerged as a significant field of political thought, strategically used by central government for articulating its mission, values and aims within its broader political economy. The article argues that today, even without the possibility of China’s immanent conversion to Western liberal-style democracy, the enterprise of cultural policy can play a significant role in the country’s development. This possibility is not dependent upon Westernisation or Western influence in any form, but on what is one of the most established of communist doctrines, the doctrine of the “mass line”.
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