L’épuration des bourgmestres belges après la Première Guerre mondiale (1918-1921)

À la veille de l’occupation allemande, la société belge s’organise en un ensemble de villes, communes et villages. L’importante autonomie locale dont jouissent les quelque 2 633 administrations locales est un pilier fondamental de l’État belge. Cette autonomie est incarnée par le bourgmestre, qui cumule les fonctions de gardien des intérêts locaux et d’exécutant de la politique nationale. Selon la constellation politique, les rapports de force au niveau local varient largement. Dans les plus ..

Necrotizing myopathy as a paraneoplastic syndrome associated with renal cell carcinoma

We report a 49-year-old patient with necrotizing myopathy and a right renal mass. After laparoscopic radical nephrectomy, a remission of myopathy was seen. Pathologic evaluation of the nephrectomy specimen revealed a clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Relapse of myopathy 6 months postoperatively coincided with the diagnosis of the appearance of liver metastatic disease. After initiation of treatment with an mTOR-inhibitor, myopathy became less active requiring smaller amounts of corticosteroids with a complete remission of myopathy after 3 months of systemic treatment for metastatic renal cell cancer

Treatment satisfaction and quality of support in outpatient substitution treatment: opiate users' experiences and perspectives

Aims: Patient-reported outcomes have become an important source of information to guide service provision. Although opiate substitution treatment (OST) is an evidence-based and widely available intervention for opiate dependent individuals, evaluation studies have primarily focused on objective outcome indicators rather than on clients’ perspectives and personal experiences. This study aims to assess opiate users’ satisfaction with various aspects of substitution treatment and their subjective experiences and expectations regarding the provision of psychosocial support. Methods: The study sample consisted of 77 opiate- dependent individuals who had been involved in OST for at least three months in some cities in Belgium. Qualitative interviews were used to explore clients’ subjective experiences, in addition to some quantitative measures. Findings: About half of the respondents recently received some form of psychosocial support and they were generally satisfied about these services. However, the number of persons who wanted psychosocial support clearly outnumbered those actually receiving these services. Respondents stressed the importance of building trusting relationships with OST staff. Also, the need for more flexible and individualised support was emphasised. Conclusions: Compared with other stakeholders’ perspectives or traditional outcome indicators, service users’ subjective experiences shed an alternative light on the impact of opiate dependence and OST on individuals’ daily lives. This information should be incorporated in individual treatment planning and when designing and evaluating OST services

Herlokalisering van de macht? Burgemeesters in bezet en bevrijd België en Noord-Frankrijk (1914-1921)

Wars are often considered as the most important catalysts for state formation. Paradoxically, wars are at the same time the most important cause of temporary state disintegration. This is exactly what occurred at the Western Front during the First World War. The German occupation of Belgium and Northern France caused a ‘re-localisation’ of daily and political life. As such, local authorities not only got cut off from central state authority, but they were also largely left to their own devices and had to fall back on themselves. This article focuses on the role of mayors in occupied and liberated Belgium and France (1914-1921). As such, it aims to present the work in progress of a mixed urban and war history research project