Prevalence of somatisation and psychologisation among patients visiting primary health care centres in the State of Qatar

Background: Medically unexplained somatic complaints are among the most common clinical presentations in primary care in developing countries and they are considerable burden for patients and health care system. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of somatisation in comparison to psychologisation among a sample of Qatari patients who were visiting primary health care (PHC) centres and to investigate the clinical and socio-demographic characteristics of somatisers (STs) and psychologisers (PGs). Method: The survey was conducted among PHC Qatari patients during the period from January to July 2007. About 2,320 patients were approached, of whom 1,689 agreed to participate and responded to the questionnaire. Among the studied Qatari patients, 404 patients were identified for clinical interview. The first stage of the study was conducted with the help of general practitioners, using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. The second stage was carried out by a consultant using the Clinical Interview Schedule. A specific operational criterion was used to identify STs and PGs. Results: The prevalence rate of STs among the total studied sample was 12.4%, while the PGs were 11.5%. Among the identified psychiatric cases, the proportion of STs (52%) was higher than PGs (48%). Most of the diagnostic categories were more prevalent among PGs. The dissatisfaction at work and stressful life events within 12 months before the onset of the presenting symptoms were the three postulated determinants which were significantly more among STs than PGs. Conclusion: The prevalence of somatised mental disorder was little higher than the psychologised mental disorder. The prevalence of somatisation and psychologisation is comparable with other reported studies from the Middle-East and Western countries. Dissatisfaction at work and stressful life events were significantly higher among STs than PGs.Keywords: somatisers; psychologisers; primary health care; determinants; Arab cultur

Prevalence of somatisation and psychologisation among patients visiting primary health care centres in the State of Qatar

Background: Medically unexplained somatic complaints are among the most common clinical presentations in primary care in developing countries and they are considerable burden for patients and health care system. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of somatisation in comparison to psychologisation among a sample of Qatari patients who were visiting primary health care (PHC) centres and to investigate the clinical and socio-demographic characteristics of somatisers (STs) and psychologisers (PGs). Method: The survey was conducted among PHC Qatari patients during the period from January to July 2007. About 2,320 patients were approached, of whom 1,689 agreed to participate and responded to the questionnaire. Among the studied Qatari patients, 404 patients were identified for clinical interview. The first stage of the study was conducted with the help of general practitioners, using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. The second stage was carried out by a consultant using the Clinical Interview Schedule. A specific operational criterion was used to identify STs and PGs. Results: The prevalence rate of STs among the total studied sample was 12.4%, while the PGs were 11.5%. Among the identified psychiatric cases, the proportion of STs (52%) was higher than PGs (48%). Most of the diagnostic categories were more prevalent among PGs. The dissatisfaction at work and stressful life events within 12 months before the onset of the presenting symptoms were the three postulated determinants which were significantly more among STs than PGs. Conclusion: The prevalence of somatised mental disorder was little higher than the psychologised mental disorder. The prevalence of somatisation and psychologisation is comparable with other reported studies from the Middle-East and Western countries. Dissatisfaction at work and stressful life events were significantly higher among STs than PGs

A recessively inherited risk locus on chromosome 13q22-31 conferring susceptibility to schizophrenia

We report a consanguineous family in which schizophrenia segregates in a manner consistent with recessive inheritance of a rare, partial-penetrance susceptibility allele. From 4 marriages between 2 sets of siblings who are half first cousins, 6 offspring have diagnoses of psychotic disorder. Homozygosity mapping revealed a 6.1-Mb homozygous region on chromosome 13q22.2-31.1 shared by all affected individuals, containing 13 protein-coding genes. Microsatellite analysis confirmed homozygosity for the affected haplotype in 12 further apparently unaffected members of the family. Psychiatric reports suggested an endophenotype of milder psychiatric illness in 4 of these individuals. Exome and genome sequencing revealed no potentially pathogenic coding or structural variants within the risk haplotype. Filtering for noncoding variants with a minor allele frequency of <0.05 identified 17 variants predicted to have significant effects, the 2 most significant being within or adjacent to the SCEL gene. RNA sequencing of blood from an affected homozygote showed the upregulation of transcription from NDFIP2 and SCEL. NDFIP2 is highly expressed in brain, unlike SCEL, and is involved in determining T helper (Th) cell type 1 and Th2 phenotypes, which have previously been implicated with schizophrenia

Computational approaches for modeling human intestinal absorption and permeability

Human intestinal absorption (HIA) is an important roadblock in the formulation of new drug substances. Computational models are needed for the rapid estimation of this property. The measurements are determined via in vivo experiments or in vitro permeability studies. We present several computational models that are able to predict the absorption of drugs by the human intestine and the permeability through human Caco-2 cells. The training and prediction sets were derived from literature sources and carefully examined to eliminate compounds that are actively transported. We compare our results to models derived by other methods and find that the statistical quality is similar. We believe that models derived from both sources of experimental data would provide greater consistency in predictions. The performance of several QSPR models that we investigated to predict outside the training set for either experimental property clearly indicates that caution should be exercised while applying any of the models for quantitative predictions. However, we are able to show that the qualitative predictions can be obtained with close to a 70% success rate

Prevalence of common phobias and their socio-demographic correlates in children and adolescents in a traditional developing society

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the most common phobias in children and adolescents and to determine the prevalence, age distribution, and socio-demographic correlates of phobias. Method: This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted at public and private schools from July 2009 to February 2009. The questionnaire included socio-demographic information, extra-curricular activities and hobbies, behaviour at home and various phobic fears and it was distributed among children aged 6 to 18 years. Psychiatrists determined the definitive diagnosis for various phobias by checking and screening their symptoms. Results: Of the studied subjects, 44% were males and 56% were females. The overall prevalence of phobia in children and adolescents was 19.7%. Among children with phobia, females had higher rates of phobias (62.4% vs 37.6%) than males. Nearly half of total sufferers were in the 12-15 year age group (46.3%). Social phobia (12.7%) was the commonest phobia found followed by agoraphobia (8.6%). Secondary school children were highly afflicted with social phobia (14.9%), agoraphobia (11.7%) and specific phobia (9.6%), while preparatory students (8.3%) were more likely to have 'medical' phobia (fear of physical illness, medical tests and procedures). A significant difference was observed between the age groups in children with agoraphobia (p=0.002). Conclusion: The overall prevalence of phobia in children and adolescents in Qatar was higher than rates found in other epidemiologic studies, with the most common phobias observed being social phobia, agoraphobia and specific phobia

SUIF Explorer: A Programming Assistant for Parallel Machines

This paper presents the preliminary design of SUIF Explorer, a system that uses state-ofthe -art parallelization analysis to guide a programmer in developing and optimizing efficient parallel code. It alleviates the tedious process of performance debugging by analyzing the results from both the SUIF compiler [1] and execution analyzers and presenting high-level information to users via cutting-edge visualization tools. It focuses the attention of the user on the critical slice of an application, asking pointed questions which lead even a naive user down the same path a compiler expert might take in optimizing the program. This paper illustrates the effectiveness of SUIF Explorer with a case study based on the MDG application in the PERFECT benchmark [3]. Users only need to examine a few lines of code to parallelize a loop that spans over several procedures and over a hundred lines of code

Exploring the effectiveness of crisis counseling and psychoeducation in relation to improving mental well-being, quality of life and treatment compliance of breast cancer patients in Qatar

Reem Jawad Al-Sulaiman,1 Abdulbari Bener,2,3 Lisa Doodson,4 Salha Bujassoum Al Bader,1 Suhaila Ghuloum,5 Alain Lemaux,1 Hekmat Bugrein,1 Reena Alassam,1 Aisha Karim1 1Department of Medical Oncology, National Center of Cancer Care and Research, Doha, Qatar; 2Istanbul Medipol University, International School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey; 3Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey; 4Department of Psychotherapy and Counseling Studies, Regent&rsquo;s University London, London, UK; 5Department of Psychiatry, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar Background: An insufficient number of studies have been carried out in the Middle East to evaluate the role of structured psychotherapeutic interventions in enhancing breast cancer patients&rsquo; psychological well-being, quality of life and treatment compliance. This study has been designed to address this limitation by exploring the benefit of two structured psychotherapeutic interventions, crisis counseling and psychoeducation, in enhancing breast cancer patients&rsquo; psychological well-being, quality of life and treatment compliance in Qatar. Methods: A total of 201 women with early-stage breast cancer from the state of Qatar were recruited and randomized into either the control group or one of the treatment groups (crisis counseling or psychoeducation). Each of the two treatment interventions consisted of a total of six 60- to 90-minute sessions, which were provided over a period of 12 weeks. The short- and long-term benefits of the crisis counseling and psychoeducation interventions were evaluated in terms of improving patients&rsquo; psychological well-being, quality of life and treatment compliance by asking all the patients to complete the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, 21 item version (DASS-21) and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life scale (QLQ-C30) instruments at different points in time and by monitoring their compliance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment. Results: This study revealed that both of the study interventions, crisis counseling and psychoeducation, were effective in improving women&rsquo;s psychological well-being and quality of life over time in comparison to the control group, but had no significant impact on patients&rsquo; compliance with treatment. In addition, the study showed that psychoeducation conferred a greater advantage than did the crisis counseling model, especially in improving women&rsquo;s psychological well-being over time. Conclusion: This study is considered the first of its kind in Qatar to provide evidence on the benefit of crisis counseling and psychoeducation interventions in improving the psychological well-being and quality of life of women with early-stage breast cancer in Qatar. In addition, this study has provided innovative research that can be used as evidence to propose changes to the psychotherapy services for breast cancer patients in Qatar. This research study aims to provide a first step toward further research in the future, which will hopefully lead to a better health care system for cancer patients in Qatar. Keywords: breast cancer, DASS-21, QLQ-C30, crisis counseling, psychoeducation, NCCCR, Qatar, psycho-oncology, psychotherapy, cancer, psychological wellbein