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We examine how 24 adult YouTube vloggers tell their 'acne stories' by means of videos posted on YouTube between 2015 and 2020. In doing so, we study the relationship between embodied experiences of acne and health-seeking practices, particularly as they pertain to managing the everyday life of the body, abandoning medical expertise and embracing lay knowledge, living with disability, and engineering an improved self. Overall, we suggest that the vloggers share a general scepticism about the clinical management of their condition, often eschewing medical treatments while advocating for the modification of lifestyle practices. Ultimately, our study shows that vloggers understand healing from acne as both a personal journey that requires individual initiative and a shared pursuit best supported not by doctors and prescription medication but by an online environment that encourages self-engineering through free-market health care options and neoliberal values of working on the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, violent conflict has caused forced displacement throughout Myanmar. Chin people, largely from the northwestern Chin state in Myanmar, have been subjected to this violence resulting in displacement and resettlement with refugee status for thousands of Chin people. Scholars have often endeavored to understand the psychological outcomes of displacement and resettlement, with empirical work often dedicated to the onset of posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and other Western-defined constructs of mental illness being correlated with traumatic experiences. These endeavors fail to center cultural explanations of mental illness among specific cultural groups like the Chin. Therefore, we used a community-collaborative, grounded theory approach to interview Chin people (N = 20) resettled in the midwestern United States. Grounded theory analyses led to identification of two categories reflecting participants' explanatory models of mental illness: (a) The Brain is Not working and (b) Causal Beliefs of The Brain not Working. The first category has one subcategory (Symptoms of the Brain not Working) and the second category is separated into three subcategories: (a) Going Crazy, Being Born Like that, and Thinking too Much as Causes, (b) Religion as an Explanation, and (c) "Control Your Heart": Personal Responsibility and the Onset of Illness. These are discussed in light of the need to better understand cultural models of illness for Chin people with refugee status in contexts of resettlement. Specific attention is afforded to potential importance of this idiom of distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Sub-Saharan Africa, psychiatric care for severe mental disorders is scarce. This is especially true for people living in chronic poverty in rural areas. The way in which people with psychotic manifestations are socially perceived and treated remains under-researched, limiting the possibility of adapting services to their needs. Methods: In May 2017, 29 semi-structured individual interviews with indigent people reporting psychotic-like experiences and 8 focus groups with members of their community were conducted in the rural region of Diébougou (Burkina Faso). Indigents were questioned on their subjective interpretation regarding these experiences. Community members were asked about their perceptions of people manifesting psychotic-like experiences. A thematic analysis was carried out. Results: Three distinct conceptions of psychotic-like experiences were identified. First, these experiences were often understood as a reflection of a mental disorder involving evil supernatural entities. Second, some people were considered as possessing a faculty that conferred supernatural powers that could be used for healing purposes. Finally, psychotic-like experiences might also reflect a temporary disturbance for which no significant repercussions were raised. Conclusions: This study suggests that certain manifestations qualified as psychotic according to the biomedical nosology seem to be considered differently from communities' perspectives. These experiences were frequently interpreted as being personal and not requiring medical attention or even as socially valuable faculties. Although psychotic-like experiences were not always perceived negatively, people who experienced them were reluctant to talk about them. This suggests that a form of stigmatization is associated with psychotic-like experiences.

Researchers have suggested that people with refugee status have heightened rates of western-defined psychiatric symptoms. Following this evidence, treatments have been adapted with the intent to foster culturally competent service provision for members of refugee communities. Absent in this research is attention to how clinicians address diverse beliefs about illness constructed within the cultures of refugee individuals. As such, even adapted treatments may not readily integrate beliefs about illness espoused in these communities into counseling. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the meaning mental health care providers ascribe to integrating refugee individuals' cultural beliefs about illness and treatment into counseling. Interviews (N = 8) were analyzed accordant with descriptive phenomenology. Four themes were identified: (a) Presenting Concerns, Stigma, and Expectations, (b) Centering Diverse Explanations of Distress, (c) Shifting the Work to Connect, and (d) Language as Barrier and Opportunity. The themes represent the meaning that participants ascribed to focusing on what their clients from refugee communities bring to treatment and the value of centering their explanations of distress. Further, they expressed the clinical value of changing how they work and the difficulty as well as benefit of language in treatment. The value of integrating diverse illness beliefs into counseling from a multiculturally oriented perspective is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand mental illness in cultural contexts, research should focus on locally informed concepts of illness and the lived experiences of such conditions. Understanding mental illness, its prevalence, and its influence on people's lives in Namibia represents one such context where attention to the lived experience of mental illness remains understudied. The purpose of the current study was to build upon ethnographic findings about mental illness as madness (eemwengu) among the Namibian Aawambo. To that end, a multiple case study design was used to explore the lived experience of being omunanamwengu (the mad one). Data were collected from four cases that were bound by the experience of mental illness. Within each case, the individual experiencing illness (omunanamwengu), family members, and both omunanamwengu and family members were interviewed formally (via a semi-structured interview protocol) or informally due to participants' preferences for not being recorded. Using Stake's suggested approach to multiple-case study cross-case analysis, each individual case is described and cross-case themes (Development and Symptoms of Mental Illness; Marginalization and Omunanamwengu ; Family Roles in the Lives of the Distressed and Eemwengu ; Belief in Treatment) were identified. Findings are discussed in light of the role of beliefs in treatment as well as family involvement, the potential influence of discrimination on mental illness, and implications for practice and cross-cultural psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A patient's self-management of chronic disease is influenced in part by their explanatory model of illness (EMI) and daily lived experiences (DLE). Unfortunately, assessing patient's EMI and using this information to engage patients in chronic illness self-management continues to be a challenge.Objective: "Health mind mapping" (HMM) is a novel process that captures a patient's EMI and DLE through the use of a graphic representation of ideas. We aimed to explore patient's experiences using HMM.Design: Qualitative study utilizing semi-structured interviews.Participants: Adult patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes from a primary care clinic.Approach: A facilitator guided 20 participants through the process of developing a health mind map. Subsequently, each participant completed a semi-structured interview about their experience with the process and perceptions about how their maps could be used. The process and interviews were video and audio recorded. We conducted a content analysis of the maps and a thematic analysis, using an inductive approach, of the interview data.Results: Participants explored a wide range of EMs and DLEs in their HMM process. Participants reported that the HMM process (1) helped to develop insight about self and illness; (2) was a catalyst for wanting to take actions to improve illness; and (3) represented an opportunity to actively share illness experiences. They reported potential uses of the map: (1) to communicate about their illness to others in their social network; (2) to communicate about their illness to providers; (3) to help others with diabetes manage their illness; and (4) to encourage ongoing engagement in diabetes self-care.Conclusions: Participants reported that HMM helped them develop new insight about their illness and was a catalyst for encouraging them to take control of their illness. HMM has the potential to facilitate communication with providers and engage patients in collaborative goal setting to improve self-care in chronic illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify the help seeking behaviours of patients from two geographically distinct provinces of Turkey. A questionnaire about sociodemographic characteristics and help seeking ways was applied to 49 schizophrenia patients from Van, 99 from Ankara. The ratio of patients seeking psychiatric help at the beginning of their illness was 76% in Ankara, the capital city, in contrast to 54% in Van (p = 0.01). Twenty-two percent of patients from Ankara and 69% from Van reported that non-psychiatric help seeking was the choice of their families (p < 0.001). Thirty-five percent of all patients sought religious support when their symptoms started. Patients with lower education levels sought more religious help (p = 0.002). Help seeking behaviours show regional variations. Religious help seeking behaviour is a major way of dealing with the illness. Psychoeducation is a crucial need both for patients and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To explore whether temporomandibular disorder (TMD) pain patients reporting different levels of pain-related disability differ in terms of illness explanations and treatment expectations. Methods: Consecutive TMD pain patients (n = 399; mean ± SD age, 40.5 ± 12.7 years; 83% women) seeking treatment in primary care completed the Explanatory Model Scale (EMS). Patients were asked to indicate their expectations regarding the treatment. Each patient's pain-related disability level was determined using the Graded Chronic Pain Scale, with scores indicating no (0 disability points), low (1-2 disability points), or high (3-6 disability points) disability. Differences between EMS factor scores were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U test. Differences between study groups were analyzed using logistic regression. Results: High-disability patients considered physical and stress factors as more important in causing and in aggravating pain and as targets of treatment compared with patients with no disability (P = .0196 and P = .0251, respectively). The great majority of patients indicated they would like to receive information, decrease pain, and increase jaw function, with no significant subtype differences noted. Compared with no-disability patients, low-disability and high-disability patients were more likely to expect increased ability to perform daily functions (P < .0001 in both comparisons), increased work ability (P < .0001 in both comparisons), and better stress management skills (P = .0014 and P = .0001, respectively). Conclusion: Illness explanations and goals for treatment differ in patients reporting different levels of TMD pain-related disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes and subsequent complications are often attributed to culture; however, previous diabetes disparities research is restricted to in-depth ethnic-specific samples or to comparative study designs with limited belief assessment. The goal of our study was to improve understanding of the cultural basis for variation in diabetes beliefs. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Rural North Carolina. Participants: Older adults (aged 60+) with diabetes, equally divided by ethnicity (White, African American, American Indian) and sex (N=593). Interventions: Guided by Explanatory Models of Illness and Cultural Consensus research traditions, trained interviewers collected data using 38 items in four diabetes belief domains: causes, symptoms, consequences, and medical management. Items were obtained from the Common Sense Model of Diabetes Inventory (CSMDI). Main Outcome: Beliefs about diabetes. Response options for each diabetes belief item were "agree,""disagree" and "don't know." Collected data were analyzed using Anthropac (version 4.98) and Latent Gold (version 4.5) programs. Results: There is substantial similarity in diabetes beliefs among African Americans, American Indians and Whites. Diabetes beliefs were most similar in the symptoms and consequences domains compared to beliefs pertaining to causes and medical management. Although some discrete beliefs differed by ethnicity, systematic differences by ethnicity were observed for specific educational groups. Conclusions: Socioeconomic conditions influence diabetes beliefs rather than ethnicity per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives of this study were to assess explanatory models (considering illness experience and meaning), addiction severity among patients with drug dependence, and the role of migration. Adapted Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue interviews were conducted with 70 outpatients in a Paris suburb. Among them, 42 were either first- or second-generation immigrants, most from North Africa. Explanatory models were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively according to migration status, assessing potential confounders with multivariate linear models. Explanatory models were heterogeneous. Compared with nonmigrants, migrants reported fewer somatic and violence-related symptoms. They attributed the causes of their addiction more frequently to social and magico-religious factors and less to psychological factors. Conversely, no difference in addiction severity was found between migrants and nonmigrants. Considering local patterns of illness experience and meaning of drug dependence is a critical component of culturally sensitive clinical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic health failure is a leading cause of hospital readmissions and is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. Explanatory models of illness can provide insight about how people with heart failure perceive their etiology of heart failure. Six themes were found in this descriptive, qualitative study to explore the perceived origin of heart failure in 50 participants. Forty percent of the people were unaware of why they had the diagnosis. Misconceptions and misinformation were common, including confusion about whether the symptoms themselves caused the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with medically unexplained symptoms comprise from 15% to 30% of all primary care consultations. Physicians often assume that psychological factors account for these symptoms, but current theories of psychogenic causation, somatization, and somatic amplification cannot fully account for common unexplained symptoms. Psychophysiological and sociophysiological models provide plausible medical explanations for most common somatic symptoms. Psychological explanations are often not communicated effectively, do not address patient concerns, and may lead patients to reject treatment or referral because of potential stigma. Across cultures, many systems of medicine provide sociosomatic explanations linking problems in family and community with bodily distress. Most patients, therefore, have culturally based explanations available for their symptoms. When the bodily nature and cultural meaning of their suffering is validated, most patients will acknowledge that stress, social conditions, and emotions have an effect on their physical condition. This provides an entree to applying the symptom-focused strategies of behavioural medicine to address the psychosocial factors that contribute to chronicity and disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]