The role of online support communities: benefits of expanded social networks to patients with psoriasis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the demographics, usage patterns, attitudes, and experiences of online support site users. DESIGN: Online survey. Patients A total of 260 subjects recruited from 5 online psoriasis support groups. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: An exploratory analysis was performed to determine demographic and disease characteristics of online support site users. Perceived benefits were also documented. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age of respondents was 40.1 (11.5) years (range, 18-75 years), most (75.7%) were white, female (60.4%), and college educated (84.3%). Key factors associated with use of online support sites included availability of resources (95.3%), convenience (94.0%), access to good advice (91.0%), and the lack of embarrassment when dealing with personal issues (90.8%). The most common activities were posting messages (65.0%) and searching for information (63.1%). Nearly half of all respondents perceived improvements in their quality of life (49.5%) and psoriasis severity (41.0%) since joining the site. Intensity of participation in online support activities was associated with improved quality of life (P = .002), but not with improvements in psoriasis severity. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that psoriasis virtual communities offer users both a valuable educational resource and a source of psychological and social support. Such benefits could be further enhanced by physician engagement within these communities.

Fate of manuscripts declined by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

BACKGROUND: Submissions to the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD) undergo a rigorous peer-review process. However, little is known regarding the fate of manuscripts declined by the JAAD. OBJECTIVE: We sought to: (1) determine the proportion of manuscripts declined by the JAAD that are subsequently published elsewhere; (2) identify the journals in which they were published; and (3) study whether the authors of declined manuscripts adopted in their final publications the changes suggested by the JAAD reviewers. METHODS: We reviewed the outcomes of the 489 submissions declined by the JAAD during two 4-month periods: from March 1, 2004, to June 30, 2004, and from March 1, 2005, to June 30, 2005. RESULTS: Of the 981 manuscripts submitted to JAAD during the two 4-month periods studied, 489 manuscripts (50%) were declined. Among the declined manuscripts, 201 (41%) had been subsequently published in other medical journals as of March 1, 2007. Among the 55 journals that published manuscripts declined by JAAD, 23 (42%) were nondermatology journals. The median impact factor for these 55 journals was 1.638, compared with the JAAD's impact factor of 2.402. Among the declined manuscripts, Case Reports comprised the largest proportion (n = 149, 31%), followed by Original Research Reports (n = 90, 18%). Overall, 46 (51%) rejected Original Research Reports were subsequently published, compared with 145 (36%) rejected submissions in other categories that were later published (P < .01). Among the 101 subsequently published manuscripts for which full texts were available, 82% of the authors incorporated at least one change suggested by the JAAD reviewers. The manuscripts that adopted JAAD-reviewer suggestions were published in journals with higher impact factors than those that did not incorporate any JAAD-reviewer suggestions (P = .0305). LIMITATIONS: It is possible that the average lag time of 28 months in this study is not sufficient for some rejected manuscripts to reach subsequent publication. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately half of the manuscripts rejected by the JAAD were subsequently published in other journals within 28 months, among which, roughly 40% went to nondermatology journals. The median impact factor of the journals that published JAAD-rejected manuscripts was lower than that of the JAAD. Rejected Original Research Reports have a significantly higher probability of being subsequently published than other category submissions. This may be a result of relative quality of Original Research Reports versus submissions for other sections of the journal (eg, Case Reports). Manuscripts that adopted JAAD-reviewer suggestions were subsequently published in journals with higher impact factors than those that did not incorporate JAAD-reviewer suggestions. This indicates that peer-reviewer comments can be useful and important for improving the quality of scientific publications.

Case report: an unusual case of adrenal neuroblastoma in pregnancy.

Neuroblastomas are the fourth most common malignancy of childhood and account for most adrenal tumors in children. However, they are rarely reported in adults. We present herein an extremely rare case of adrenal neuroblastoma occurring in a 25-year-old woman during her first trimester of pregnancy. She had a spontaneous abortion secondary to chorioamnionitis and she was operated on for an "incidentaloma." Her tumor was curatively resected. She presented with right lower quadrant abdominal pain 26 months after her operation and there was evidence of local tumor recurrence without metastasis. Adult adrenal neuroblastoma is an uncommon malignancy and, to our knowledge, there was no case of this tumor occurring in pregnancy ever described in the English literature. The case presentation is followed by a general discussion with an emphasis on the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of neuroblastoma and its association with pregnancy.