Putting the spotlight on individual-specific psychosomatic processes:An introduction to the special issue on intensive longitudinal research methods in psychosomatic research

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The Role of Group Dynamics in Scientific Inconsistencies: A Case Study of a Research Consortium

Judith Rosmalen and Albertine Oldehinkel describe their experience in the TRAILS research consortium to discuss why research teams might publish contradictory or inconsistent results despite procedures to avoid this; they emphasize the role of internal group dynamics rather than faulty publication practices

Fatal Attraction: Interactions between antigen-presenting cells and islets of Langerhans in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes

The onset of diabetes mellitus is characterized by various symptoms, all the result of a disturbed glucose metabolism. The main symptoms are thirst and an excessive production of urine. The disturbed glucose metabolism underlying these symptoms is due to an absolute deficiency of insulin secretion (type 1 diabetes mellitus), a reduction in its biological effectiveness (type 2 diabetes mellitus) or a combination of these factors. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is predominantly manifesting in children, and needs to be treated by life-long exogenous insulin administration to prevent high blood glucose levels. Type 2 diabetes mellitus occurs classically in adults, and is relatively milder in its appearance; usually, exogenous insulin administration is not required. This thesis concerns type 1 (ins

School Absenteeism as a Perpetuating Factor of Functional Somatic Symptoms in Adolescents:The TRAILS Study

Objective To examine whether school absenteeism is a perpetuating factor of functional somatic symptoms and whether this holds true for bullied adolescents. Study design This study is part of the longitudinal population-based study Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey. Data from assessment wave 2 (n = 2149; 51.0% girls; mean age = 13.65, SD = 0.53) and assessment wave 3 (n = 1816; 53.3% girls; mean age = 16.25, SD = 0.72) were used. Peer victimization was assessed by peer nominations, school absenteeism by both parent and teacher reports, and functional somatic symptoms with the Youth Self-Report. Results With structural equation modeling, school absenteeism at the second wave, adjusted for functional somatic symptoms at the second wave, was revealed to predict functional somatic symptoms at the third wave in the entire cohort (beta = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.02-0.22), but not in the subgroup of bullied adolescents (beta = -0.13; 95% CI, -0.62--0.26). However, the difference between bullied and unbullied adolescents did not reach significance. Conclusion This study provides evidence that school absenteeism is a perpetuating factor of functional somatic symptoms in adolescents. A clinical intervention study is necessary to examine whether preventing school absenteeism truly helps to reduce functional somatic symptoms in adolescents. (J Pediatr 2011;159:988-93)