ADHD prevalence in Lebanese school-age population.

OBJECTIVE: The authors conducted an epidemiological study in Lebanon to estimate ADHD prevalence in school-age population. METHOD: They selected 1,000 children aged between 6 and 10 years, admitted in several schools in Lebanon. In each district, they randomly chose five schools, and in each school two classes. From each class, 10 children were included randomly in the population of the study. For each child, an ADHD-Rating Scale-IV School version was filled by a main teacher. The Home version was filled by the child's parents. RESULTS: The prevalence of ADHD Inattentive subtype was 3 per 1,000, Hyperactive-Impulsive subtype 12 per 1,000, and ADHD Combined subtype 17 per 1,000. ADHD was significantly more prevalent in boys than in girls. CONCLUSION: This is the first epidemiological study to be conducted in Lebanon to estimate the prevalence of ADHD among children.

Psychiatric morbidity, phenomenology and management in hospitalized female foreign domestic workers in Lebanon.

40 million female domestic workers worldwide experience the inhumane conditions associated with this unregulated occupation, a situation that induces psychiatric morbidities in many. The case in Lebanon is not any better where it is estimated that one foreign domestic worker (FDW) commits suicide weekly. 33 female FDW and 14 female Lebanese (control group, CG) were enrolled. Brief Psychotic Rating Scale (BPRS) and Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scales were administered on admission and discharge and socio-demographic, living conditions, mental health care data and phenomenological observations were collected. Sexual, physical, and verbal abuses were detected in FDW (12.5, 37.5, and 50.0 %. respectively). 66.7 % of them were diagnosed with brief psychotic episode. The mean duration of hospital stay (13.1 days) was significantly lower in the FDW group. The mean cumulative antipsychotic dose of the FDW was 337.1 mg of chlorpromazine equivalent and the mean BPRS total pre-score of FDW was 66.4 with a much improved state on the CGI global improvement scale, all of which were nonsignificantly different from the CG. Striking phenomenological findings among FDW were acute anorexia (39.4 %), nudity (30.3 %), catatonic features (21.2 %), and delusion of pregnancy (12.1 %). Inpatient FDW are more diagnosed with psychotic than affective disorders and receive approximately similar treatment as controls in spite of the trend to rapidly discharge and deport the worker to limit the costs. Both groups presented with similar severity, although the FDW had peculiar phenomenological observations.