Research instruments

Research, Training & Educational Programs are all part of the package that IDRAAC offers to the Lebanese public in particular and to the Arab speaking public in general. IDRAAC has worked since 1980 on adapting several internationally recognized instruments to the Arabic language for use in mental health research and practice.

Following is a list of the research instruments that IDRAAC has adapted to Arabic and has used in its research over the years, including ones for which IDRAAC has been designated an official training center (see details under CIDI training).
All these tools listed below are not to be used without authors’ permission.
The translation into Arabic is only used for research purposes. Any clinical use requires formal permission from the authors of that instrument.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Scale (by Du Paul and R. Barkley)

A scale that is developed to evaluate children and adolescents with Attention Deficit- Hyperactivity Disorder; it can be filled by both parents and teachers.

Child Depression Inventory (CDI), (by M. Kovacs)

A self-rating scale designed to be used with children and adolescents who have Major Depression. It is useful as a screening tool for depression and it is sensitive to changes in the clinical condition. There is a child and a parent version.

Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents, Revised (DICA-R)

Developed at Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, the DICA-R is a structured psychiatric interview for children and adolescents between the ages of 6 and 17 years The DICA provides diagnoses according to DSM-III-R and is designed to provide mental health diagnoses for children and adolescents in large epidemiologic surveys.
All three versions (child, adolescent and parent) have been translated to Arabic and used in research conducted by IDRAAC.

Home Situation Questionnaire (HSQ), (by R. Barkley)

A scale that assesses the degree of severity of behavioral and attention problems through parents' reports. The scale compares children with peers of the same sex and age in a series of typical daily home situations. This scale is useful for treatment of ADHD, ODD or CD children.

School Situation Questionnaire (SSQ), (by R. Barkley)

A questionnaire that assesses the degree of severity of behavioral and attention problems through teachers' report. The scale compares children with peers of the same sex and age in a series of typical daily school situations. This scale is useful for behavioral management planning in the treatment of ADHD, ODD or CD children.

Social Adjustment Scale-revised, (by Du Paul and R. Barkley)

A scale addressed to children and adolescents that aims at evaluating their social adaptation and well being through a series of questions related to involvements in school, extracurricular activities, family life, friendships, dating, and others. This scale can be used as self-report or as a semi-structured interview.

Positive and Negative symptoms Scale for Schizophrenia (PANSS), (by Stanly R. Kay)

A scale of hetero-evaluation of 30 items. Parts of 1 to 7, of the pathologic symptoms observed in patients presenting psychotic conditions, in particular schizophrenia. It allows calculating 3 dimensional syndrome scores: positive, negative and of general psychopathology, all in a categorical and dimensional perspective.

The War Events Questionnaire (WEQ), (by EG. Karam, R. Al- Atrash, S. Saliba, N. Melhem, D. Howard)

The WEQ covers a wide variety of war events. The list of specific war events included in the questionnaire represents events that occur frequently in war situations.
Part I inquires about the occurrence of specific war events like house damage, physical injury, kidnapping and business loss.
In Part II, events like displacement, water and electricity shortages, going to the shelter, etc.. that occur rather frequently and repeatedly for the same individual are inquired about.
Since perception of war events is seen by many authors to be an important factor in the study of war stressors, the WEQ also assesses the subject’s perception of the war events they have been exposed to. To each war event inquired about in part I, the interviewee gives a score from 0 to 10, depending on how traumatic the event was perceived by that subject. Thus, every war event gets two numerical values, one pre-set and one given by the interviewee.
To know more please refer to: Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 1999, Vol. 34(5): 265-274. EG. Karam, R. Al-Atrash, S. Saliba, N. Melhem, D. Howard.

Three-dimensional Personality Scale (TPQ), (by R. Cloninger)

A questionnaire designed to assess temperament in both normal and abnormal populations, based on a general biosocial theory of personality. Temperament is assessed through 3 dimensions: novelty-seeking, harm-avoidance and reward dependence. The data obtained from the questionnaire can be analyzed to come up with dimensions of personality traits.

Yale- Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), (by W. Goodman)

A scale designed to obtain a measurement of the severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms independent of their content. The sum of the 5 items of obsession allows obtaining a score, which extends from 0 to 20 reflecting the cognitive perturbations of the patient. A compulsion score in the sense of motor activity is obtained by the sum of the 5 items of compulsion. Therefore, the total score of the scale has a range of 0 to 40.