Parenting young people with complex regional pain syndrome : an analysis of the process of parental online communication

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Loss-adjusting: Young People's Constructions of a Future Living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Objectives: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition that can present specific difficulties when occurring in adolescence. There is limited work exploring future narratives of healthy adolescents, and how these may differ for those who have chronic health conditions, but there is no research on the future narratives of adolescents who have CRPS. Methods: In this study, 50 adolescents (44 females, 5 males, 1 preferred not to say) aged 14-25 years (mean=19.8, SD=3.68), completed an online story completion task, with a further sample of 10 completing a follow-up telephone interview. Results: Story completion data were initially analysed deductively based on the work of Morley and colleagues using hoped-for and feared-for future codes, revealing higher instances of hope (291 over 48 stories) than fear (99 over 27 stories). These codes were subsequently analysed alongside the in-depth interview data using inductive thematic analysis, generating two themes which represent distinct, yet related, approaches of how adolescents incorporate CRPS into their future narratives: (1)The centrality of loss theme identifies how some adolescents described how CRPS brings loss, with narratives focused on how these adolescents imagine such losses continuing into the future, and (2) the adjusting to loss theme illustrates how other adolescents were able to imagine a future in which they were able to adjust to the losses which CRPS may bring. Discussion: CRPS may damage the future plans of adolescents. However, being or learning how to be flexible about these goals, may help them to build more positive future narratives

Genome-wide tracking of unmethylated DNA Alu repeats in normal and cancer cells

Methylation of the cytosine is the most frequent epigenetic modification of DNA in mammalian cells. In humans, most of the methylated cytosines are found in CpG-rich sequences within tandem and interspersed repeats that make up to 45% of the human genome, being Alu repeats the most common family. Demethylation of Alu elements occurs in aging and cancer processes and has been associated with gene reactivation and genomic instability. By targeting the unmethylated SmaI site within the Alu sequence as a surrogate marker, we have quantified and identified unmethylated Alu elements on the genomic scale. Normal colon epithelial cells contain in average 25 486 ± 10 157 unmethylated Alu's per haploid genome, while in tumor cells this figure is 41 995 ± 17 187 (P = 0.004). There is an inverse relationship in Alu families with respect to their age and methylation status: the youngest elements exhibit the highest prevalence of the SmaI site (AluY: 42%; AluS: 18%, AluJ: 5%) but the lower rates of unmethylation (AluY: 1.65%; AluS: 3.1%, AluJ: 12%). Data are consistent with a stronger silencing pressure on the youngest repetitive elements, which are closer to genes. Further insights into the functional implications of atypical unmethylation states in Alu elements will surely contribute to decipher genomic organization and gene regulation in complex organisms