How Is a Label of Borderline Personality Disorder Constructed on Twitter: A Critical Discourse Analysis.

This research took a social constructionist stance and explored how Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is constructed by Twitter users who identify with this diagnostic label. Consistent with this position, a critical discourse analysis (CDA) methodology was employed. The data comprised two-hundred and twenty-five tweets. Tweets from professionals, or links to blogs, were excluded, in an attempt to ensure only personal tweets were used. Two interpretative repertoires were produced from the analysis: BPD as an existence of tension and BPD as a different existence. The findings indicated that authors were involved in a negotiation between themselves and BPD, which had an impact upon their felt sense of agency/control over BPD. Likewise, authors constructed themselves in opposition to individuals who did not identify with the diagnosis of BPD. Whilst this provided more favourable positions, it potentially limited access to healthcare professionals and services. The research highlights the importance of the terminology and language clinicians employ when working with clients and other professionals, as they may inadvertently disempower or stigmatise. As CDA does not assume equivalence between individuals' accounts and their internal experiences, future research may need to explore the experience of stigmatisation through social networking sites.

The Experience of Mentalization-Based Treatment: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study.

The construct of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) as an explanation of an individual's experience is generally accepted in the literature but has recently been called into question. This study adopted a qualitative stance to offer an alternative to this accepted view. Six individuals undergoing Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) participated and their data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Themes interpreted from the data provided a sense that although MBT helped participants, they did not feel cured.

Kinetic and phenotypic changes in murine lymphocytes infected with murine gammaherpesvirus-68 in vitro.

Primary infection with murine gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV-68), as with other members of the gammaherpesvirus subfamily, is characterized by a lymphoproliferative phase. MHV-68 causes acute splenomegaly and an infectious mononucleosis-like syndrome in which there is expansion of the CD8+ T cell subset. In long-term infections, MHV-68 is associated with lymphoma development. In order to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the proliferative processes, the events following infection of murine splenocytes or purified murine B lymphocytes in vitro have been examined. MHV-68 infection prolonged the viability of murine splenocytes and stimulated cellular proliferation. Unlike Epstein-Barr virus and herpesvirus saimiri, MHV-68 did not cause growth transformation. Growth transformation did not occur even when cells with a predisposition to transformation were infected or when culture conditions were selected to enhance the viability of the cells. Following MHV-68 infection, the latency-associated viral tRNAs were transcribed. However, transcription of the other known latency-associated gene, M2, was not observed. In addition, there was no evidence of productive virus replication either by staining with antibodies specific for late virus antigens or by in situ hybridization for early and late mRNAs. In contrast to Epstein-Barr virus- and herpesvirus saimiri-infected lymphocytes, where episomal genomes are seen, Gardella gel analysis indicated that the primary lymphocytes infected by MHV-68 in vitro contained only linear virus DNA. This DNA was nuclease sensitive, indicating that, while MHV-68 was efficiently uncoated, its circularization in vitro was extremely inefficient. These results are discussed in terms of the host-virus interaction.