ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the so-called liberation treatment in multiple sclerosis (MS) as a suitable case for an exemplary analysis of the information flow in patient-oriented online media and scientific research. It presents a quantitative analysis of the evolving behavior of the various participants within the selected patient online forum to get a first insight into the information flow in the lay community. The analysis involved different methods for collecting material, searching for scientific publications, studying other web resources referenced in discussions, and ultimately characterizing user behavior, both in terms of sources of information being referenced and in terms of overall behavior. The chapter provides a discourse analysis of the chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficienc (CCSVI)-related posts in the MS patient forum with the aim to explore the content, structure, and substructure of the information flow about CCSVI in a lay community.
