Despite the high level of scientific support for the effectiveness of opioid substitution treatments (OSTs), individuals who rely on this treatment are a highly stigmatized population within healthcare settings. Previous studies mainly focused on the experiences of OST clients, while the perspective of medical professionals regarding OST remains largely unexplored. This study aims to investigate the discourse of pharmacists and general practitioners about OST through the lens of positioning theory. To explore their stance toward OST, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 pharmacists and general practitioners working in pharmacies, community health centers, private medical practices, prisons, and drug treatment services in Flanders, Belgium. The participants of this study discursively constructed four storylines to position themselves and OST clients, namely, a biomedical, psychodynamic, biopsychosocial, and moralizing storyline. These storylines are based on historical explanatory addiction models, and their use varies according to the participant's work setting. While the moralizing storyline was characterized by othering, stereotyping, and labeling, participants who applied the biopsychosocial storyline approached clients in a destigmatizing manner. To conclude, participants used the identified storylines to define the position of clients in OST, along with their related rights and duties. The dominant storyline thus shapes the view on and treatment of OST clients in a medical setting.

The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist was designed to enhance quality in the reporting of interview and focus group studies, and it is widely endorsed by journals and publishers. However, it has also been heavily critiqued for its design and application in qualitative health research communities. In this article, we conduct detailed critical text analyses of eight articles and their accompanying self-reported COREQ responses and discuss the performative force of the checklist on the appearance of research quality. The analyses of authors' rhetorical strategies in articles and checklist responses indicated that they sometimes provide misleading, inconsistent, or excessive information, prioritizing checklist completion over substantive engagement with quality principles. While intended to standardize reporting, COREQ's rigid structure often led to overcompliance or inappropriate responses from authors, who strived to meet its criteria, even when they were irrelevant or unsuitable. This "overobedience" reflects a desire to maintain credibility and avoid scrutiny, yet it undermines the depth and rigor of qualitative research. COREQ is an epistemic device, shaping researcher practices and identities beyond its stated purpose, and while COREQ aims to enhance accountability, it perpetuates epistemic dominance, eroding authenticity and critical reflection in qualitative research, ultimately exacerbating the very problems it seeks to solve.

Critical ethnography is a research methodology that examines the influence of elements of power and domination on production, reproduction, and reflection in social life. Although researchers have used critical ethnography as a way to describe and represent culture in recent decades, methodological challenges have hindered the spread of critical ethnographic research. Among recent researchers, Carspecken has played a significant role in the development of the critical ethnographic method. His method consists of three preliminary steps (preparation of a list of questions, determination of the required information by the researcher, and researcher value orientation test) and five main steps (compilation of primary records, preliminary reconstructive analysis, dialogical data generation, description of system relations, and system relations as an explanation for the findings). In the present study, Carspecken's critical ethnography method is introduced as an engaging and practical guide for critical research.

Temporary abstinence challenges (TACs) encouraging people to abstain from alcohol for typically 1month time periods have acquired considerable popularity. TACs may promote longer-term reductions in alcohol consumption, but it is unclear how TACs influence behavior changes and whether positive changes are held among adults identifiable as relatively heavy drinkers. Drawing on a UK-based sample of six heavier drinkers, we measured self-reported alcohol consumption and drink-refusal self-efficacy and conducted interviews at three timepoints: pre-TAC participation (T1), and immediately following (T2) and 6months post-TAC (T3) participation. Using longitudinal interpretative phenomenological analysis, an analytic technique for understanding change over time, and via integration with quantitative self-report measures, we identified three patterns of evidence about longer-term change (or not) in alcohol use linked to TAC participation: "mainly clear change," "unclear/complicated change," and "no change or limited change," each with narrative illustrations from two participants. We found evidence of greater reflection about alcohol consumption at T2 and lower levels of T3 alcohol intake among four of six participants. For some, TAC participation revealed downsides of drinking, and linked participation to reductions in their alcohol consumption. However, other interviews suggested ambivalence about and "backfire effects" associated with TAC participation, in that positives of alcohol consumption were highlighted, with apparently linked negligible changes in consumption practices. Research implications suggest that inoculation against renewed alcohol appreciation may strengthen TAC campaign successes. Future research must test the tenability of our identified trajectories and explore, experimentally, drinking trajectories among registered versus unregistered TAC participants.

A growing amount of evidence shows the positive impact of arts-based interventions in dementia care. Existing studies focus on the impact of such interventions on individuals with dementia, yet there is little known about contextual factors influencing the impact of such practices. Contextual factors include personal and relational processes, such as the collaboration between staff, family members, and artists. It also includes making specific organizational choices about the way in which arts and care organizations structure and organize their collaboration. The study aimed to investigate contextual factors influencing the potential impact of health care clowning for persons with dementia. Through multi-country participatory action research (PAR) into health care clowning in dementia care, this study engaged artists (health care clowns), staff, family members, and representatives from four long-term dementia care facilities and three health care clowning organizations. The presented findings show that for arts-based interventions to have sustainable impact within the context of long-term dementia care, focusing on the intervention itself is not enough. Additional time and space are needed for implementation of the intervention and good collaboration on the work floor. The results of this study demonstrate that elements in the PAR process such as open dialogue and arts-based research methods can create communicative spaces which can serve as a catalyst for effective implementation of arts-based practices in long-term dementia care. Elements of the PAR process can therefore be regarded as a form of successful boundary work and in the future could be applied when implementing arts-based interventions in care settings.

Autoethnographic accounts of mental illness (MI) are sparse in academic scholarship, despite generating valuable insights into how MI can be experienced and coped with in real-life contexts. First-person accounts from men are especially lacking, possibly linked to historic trend for masculine stoicism stifling male MI discussions. Some scholarships explore video-gaming as a positive, escapist aid benefiting individuals experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD). However, no research exists presenting in-depth perspectives on possible positive effects, self-identified and articulated by actors engaging with gaming to cope with MDD. This research adopts a novel qualitative perspective, representing an in-depth autoethnographic examination of my experiences playing the personal computer game DeusEx, during a period of my life where I was under treatment for MDD. My positions as both a psychologist specializing in research prioritizing feminist theory as applied to understand men, masculinities, and mental health, and someone themselves recurrently treated for MDD over longer than 22 years, construct a unique dual-positionality perspective. Explicit discussions of my MDD experiences and my experiences concerning the value of video-gaming as a positive, escapist aid during MDD are presented, alongside personal deconstructions of the lasting influences of hegemonic masculinity upon men speaking up about MI. Arguments are presented for future scholars utilizing autoethnographic methods to generate realist perspectives, normalizing mental health discussions, particularly the sharing of underrepresented male experiences. Implications for future scholarship, building upon learnings generated by this research, are developed and put forward.

The stage is set for a new era of precariousness in modern medicine, driven by the increasing failure of a key pharmaceutical pillar—antimicrobials. In the context of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the rise of antimicrobial resistance is introducing urgent questions around what might constitute “best practice” in a rapidly evolving scene, including the value of asymptomatic screening (test and treat), and the consequent downstream collateral damage emerging from over-use of our diminishingly effective antimicrobial resources. Drawing on interviews with clinicians, experts, and industry representatives, we examine resistance as a site of emerging and co-constitutive moral, temporal, and economic dilemmas. Such dilemmas, as illustrated in participants’ accounts, involve complexities regarding prioritization between competing health demands; doing good work while meeting business requirements; considering trade-offs between visibility and amplifying the problem; difficulties balancing presents and futures; reconciling divergent clinical opinions and expertise; and managing patient subjectivities, while considering the implications of clinical practices for resistance. Importantly, centering dilemmas in context of antibiotic-resistant STIs open greater theoretical scope to consider the challenging spaces that key actors such as clinicians and decision-makers occupy, as they attempt to curb resistance while caring for individuals and the community.

Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare neurological condition. Research has increased our understanding of the etiology, prognosis, and effective medical treatment of the illness. There is a lack of understanding regarding the psychological effects and what could help patients. This study aimed to begin to address this using constructivist grounded theory. Eleven interviews were conducted with participants who had received a diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome in the preceding 4years. The model that emerged identified two key processes: "Loss, determination, and adjustment" and "The unknown." "Receiving support," "Obtaining knowledge," and "Experiencing hope" assist in navigating these psychological effects. The findings emphasize the all-encompassing effects of Guillain-Barré syndrome, illustrating the need for rehabilitation professionals to alleviate uncertainty and foster practices that could facilitate patients' navigation through the illness. Recommendations for further research are provided.

Most qualitative health research is subject to ethics review and approval by a research ethics committee (REC). While many studies have identified the challenges that current ethics review practices pose to qualitative health research, there is currently a call to move the research focus from the shortcomings of ethics review practices to the possibilities for improvement. The aim of this grounded theory study was to identify possibilities for improvement of current ethics review practices which can count on endorsement from qualitative health researchers and members of REC alike. To this end, we developed interventions for improving review practices through a comparative analysis of qualitative health researchers' experiences with review practices and REC members' discussions about how their review practices operate. Data collection proceeded by means of problem-centered interviews with seven qualitative health researchers and three focus group discussions with 14 REC members in Germany. Our analysis shows two overarching dimensions in the ethics review practice related to the distribution of responsibility for ethically legitimate research and the reasons for ethical concerns about qualitative health research studies. While there was disagreement about concrete suggestions for improvement, our analysis shows that researchers and REC members pursue three shared overarching aims: increasing expertise in qualitative methods among REC members and researchers, improving communication between researchers and RECs, and tailoring ethics review procedures to qualitative health research. We conclude that researchers and REC members need to promote collaboration and collegiality to ensure ethically appropriate review practices for qualitative health research.