How Populist are the People? Measuring Populist Attitudes in Voters

Contains fulltext : 120643.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)The sudden and perhaps unexpected appearance of populist parties in the 1990s shows no sign of immediately vanishing. The lion’s share of the research on populism has focused on defining populism, on the causes for its rise and continued success, and more recently on its influence on government and on public policy. Less research has, however, been conducted on measuring populist attitudes among voters. In this article, we seek to fill this gap by measuring populist attitudes and to investigate whether these attitudes can be linked with party preferences. We distinguish three political attitudes: (1) populist attitudes, (2) pluralist attitudes, and (3) elitist attitudes. We devise a measurement of these attitudes and explore their validity by way of using a principal component analysis on a representative Dutch data set (N = 600). We indeed find three statistically separate scales of political attitudes. We further validated the scales by testing whether they are linked to party preferences and find that voters who score high on the populist scale have a significantly higher preference for the Dutch populist parties, the Party for Freedom, and the Socialist Party.17 maart 201430 p

Efficacy and tolerability of citalopram in comparison with fluvoxamine in depressed outpatients: A double-blind, multicentre study

Contains fulltext : 29446.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)In 16 depression clinics in hospitals and outpatient facilities in the Netherlands, a study was performed to evaluate and compare the efficacy and tolerability of citalopram and fluvoxamine and to determine the difference in the incidence of gastrointestinal side-effects. A total of 217 patients with a depressive disorder (DSM-III-R criteria) and a score of at least 16 on the Hamilton rating scale for depression were randomized to treatment. The results of this study indicate that the two drugs are equally effective. The adverse events occurring during treatment show a similar pattern between the two drugs, but citalopram is better tolerated than fluvoxamine. Citalopram induces fewer gastrointestinal adverse events compared with fluvoxamine. However, this did not affect the drop-out rates

High Prevalence of Eating Disorders in Narcolepsy with Cataplexy: A Case-Control Study

Contains fulltext : 70014.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)STUDY OBJECTIVES: To study the prevalence of and symptoms of eating disorders in patients with narcolepsy. DESIGN: We performed a case-control study comparing symptoms of eating disorders in patients with narcolepsy versus healthy population controls, using the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN 2.1). To study whether an increased body mass index (BMI) could be responsible for symptoms of an eating disorder, we also compared patients with BMI-matched controls, using the SCAN as well as the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: Patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy (n = 60) were recruited from specialized sleep centers. Healthy controls (n = 120) were drawn from a population study previously performed in the Netherlands. Separately, 32 BMI-matched controls were recruited. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: In total, 23.3% of the patients fulfilled the criteria for a clinical eating disorder, as opposed to none of the control subjects. Most of these were classified as Eating Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, with an incomplete form of binge eating disorder. On the symptom level, half of the patients reported a persistent craving for food, as well as binge eating. Twenty-five percent of patients even reported binging twice a week or more often. When compared with BMI-matched controls, the significant increases persisted in symptoms of eating disorders among patients with narcolepsy. Except for a higher level of interference in daily activities due to eating problems in patients using antidepressants, medication use did not influence our findings. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients with narcolepsy experience a number of symptoms of eating disorders, with an irresistible craving for food and binge eating as the most prominent features. Eating disorder symptomatology interfered with daily activities. These findings justify more attention for eating disorders in the treatment of patients with narcolepsy

Is Fatigue a Disease-Specific or Generic Symptom in Chronic Medical Conditions?

OBJECTIVE: Severe fatigue is highly prevalent in various chronic diseases. Disease-specific fatigue models have been developed, but it is possible that fatigue-related factors in these models are similar across diseases. The purpose of the current study was to determine the amount of variance in fatigue severity explained by: (a) the specific disease, (b) factors associated with fatigue across different chronic diseases (transdiagnostic factors), and (c) the interactions between these factors and specific diseases. METHOD: Data from 15 studies that included 1696 patients with common chronic diseases and disorders that cause long-term disabilities were analyzed. Linear regression analysis with the generalized least-squares technique was used to determine fatigue-related factors associated with fatigue severity, that is, demographic variables, health-related symptoms and psychosocial variables. RESULTS: Type of chronic disease explained 11% of the variance noted in fatigue severity. The explained variance increased to 55% when the transdiagnostic factors were added to the model. These factors were female sex, age, motivational and concentration problems, pain, sleep disturbances, physical functioning, reduced activity and lower self-efficacy concerning fatigue. The predicted variance increased to 61% when interaction terms were added. Analysis of the interactions revealed that the relationship between fatigue severity and relevant predictors mainly differed in strength, not in direction. CONCLUSIONS: Fatigue severity can largely be explained by transdiagnostic factors; the associations vary between chronic diseases in strength and significance. This suggests that severely fatigued patients with different chronic diseases can probably benefit from a transdiagnostic fatigue-approach which focuses on individual patient needs rather than a specific disease. (PsycINFO Database Recor

Explaining the electoral performance of populist parties: the Netherlands as a case study

This article provides an explanatory framework for the electoral performance of populist parties, using the Netherlands as a case study. The Netherlands is an ideal case, as several populist parties have entered the political scene in recent years with varying levels of electoral success. The most notable cases are the List Pim Fortuyn and Geert Wilders' Freedom Party. Whereas the former party did not sustain, Geert Wilders has, so far, managed to remain an important force in Dutch politics. The article argues that the performance of populist parties is dependent on a combination of causal conditions: the availability of the electorate, the responsiveness of established parties and the supply of credible populist challengers. As will be argued, especially this latter factor is vital to the (long-term) performance of populist parties. Further research should, therefore, not refrain from taking the agency of populist parties themselves into account

Extreme right-wing populism in Europe: revisiting a reified association

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Discourse Studies on 10 Apr 2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2017.1309325.Revisiting the trend of identifying populism with extreme right parties, in this paper we aim to problematize such associations within the context of today’s Europe. Drawing on examples from relevant parties in France and the Netherlands, and applying a discourse-theoretical methodology, we test the hypothesis that such parties are better categorized primarily as nationalist and only secondarily–and reluctantly–as ‘populist’. Our hypothesis follows the remarks of scholars who have stressed that the central theme in the discourse of such parties is not the staging of an antagonism between a ‘people’ and an ‘elite’, but rather the opposition of an ethnic community with its alleged dangerous ‘others’. In this context, we propose a discursive methodology able to differentiate between ‘populist’ and ‘nationalist’ (xenophobic, racist, etc.) discourses by locating the core signifiers in each discourse in relation to peripheral ones, as well as by clarifying the nature of the axial antagonisms put forth