Acquired prosopagnosia (PA) is a rare condition after, for example, a stroke or brain injury. The congenital form of PA is generally considered to be even less common. Beside a few single case reports and anecdotal mentioning of familial cases no data on the epidemiology exists. Following a questionnaire-based screening in local secondary schools and at our medical faculty, candidates suspicious for PA underwent a semi-structured interview followed by examinations of first degree relatives. Among 689 local pupils and medical students of our university we found 17 with congenital PA. This corresponds to a prevalence rate of 2.47% (95% CI 1.31-3.63). The frequency is among the highest known for a monogenic disorder. All those index subjects (n = 14) of the target group who agreed to further examinations of their family members had other first degree relatives with the same cognitive disorder. This study provides epidemiological evidence that congenital PA is a very common cognitive disorder which almost always runs in families. The segregation pattern of this hereditary prosopagnosia (HPA) is fully compatible with autosomal dominant inheritance.

This paper present data from the second and third rounds of a three-phase longitudinal research project exploring the 'lived experiences' of patients with chronic low-back pain (CLBP) in the United Kingdom. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants 1 and 2 years after the first interviews and after attendance at a medically staffed chronic pain clinic. The transcribed accounts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis and results compared with the data from time one. A main challenge for participants was managing constant unchanging pain experiences and loss across all areas of their lives. Some participants held consistent biomedical understandings of CLBP, continued to focus on the physicality of their pain and adopt a narrow range of behavioural-focused coping strategies and maintained a strong loss orientation. It is proposed that these elements demonstrated embodied experiences and contributed to comprehensive enmeshment of self and pain with little re-establishment of any behavioural activity. In comparison, participants who had experienced pain relief due to physical treatments showed increased use of mind-body strategies, a future orientation and were considered to be less enmeshed in their experiences. These changes were discussed in relation to the relationship between pain remission and illness beliefs.

This study was contextualised within a public health model of mental health promotion, with psychological well-being conceptualised as the positive component of mental health and physical exercise conceptualised as a subset of physical activities aimed at improving health and well-being. The research investigated the relationship between regular physical exercise over a period of two to six months and psychological well-being in 26 exercisers at health clubs in the Richards Bay area of South Africa. Psychological well-being was measured by a Well-being Profile, composed of well-being components of mood, lifestyle, satisfaction with life, sense of coherence, fortitude, stress management, coping and total well-being score. Regular exercise was defined as meeting the criterion of exercising for an average of 30 minutes a day at least three times a week. The main findings were that regular exercise was associated with significant improvements in total well-being score and especially in the well-being components of mood, sense of coherence, fortitude, stress and coping. These findings are discussed in terms of their significance for the promotion of public health in general and mental health in particular.

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