Personality Traits and Mental Health among Lebanese Medical Students: The Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence.

Medical students face daily challenges such as large workload, time commitment and clinical environment pressure leading to a higher risk of psychological distress. The aim of our study was to assess the relationship between personality traits and depression, anxiety, and stress among Lebanese medical students and to evaluate the mediating role of emotional intelligence (EI) in this association. This cross-sectional study was conducted between June and December of 2019. Participants were from seven medical schools in Lebanon. Higher extraversion (B = -0.11), higher neuroticism (B = -0.28) and higher emotional intelligence (B = -0.03) were significantly associated with lower depression. Higher neuroticism (B = -0.29) and higher emotional intelligence (B = -0.03) were significantly associated with lower anxiety. Higher openness to experience (B = 0.07) and higher agreeableness (B = 0.08) were significantly associated with higher stress, whereas higher neuroticism (B = -0.05) was associated with lower stress. EI mediated the association between extraversion and depression and openness to experience and depression. EI mediated the association between extraversion and anxiety and openness to experience and anxiety. The results of this study were different from those previously cited in the literature. This could be secondary to the mediating role of emotional intelligence. This study consequently opens up the possibility of new studies highlighting the role of emotional intelligence in the possible preservation of medical students' mental health.

Non Hodgkin lymphoma in Lebanon: a retrospective epidemiological study between 1984 and 2019.

BACKGROUND: Lymphomas are ranked as the fifth most common cancer in Lebanon. There is concern about the need of information regarding the prevalence of lymphoid neoplasm particularly Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) subtypes in the Lebanese population. This study intended to establish a descriptive status of NHL histological subtypes distribution in Lebanon thus identifying the most common types, knowing that the literature is poor regarding the distribution of lymphoid malignancies particularly NHLs in Lebanon. METHODS: A bicenter retrospective descriptive study was performed. Patients aged above 18, diagnosed with NHL between January 1984 and March 2019 and registered in two Lebanese Medical centers were included in this study; 699 medical files were reviewed and the baseline characteristics of the disease were collected. Histological classification was based on the Working Formulation (WF) and World Health Organization (WHO) classification systems, whereas staging was based on the Ann Arbor system. Disease status was monitored with imaging studies. RESULTS: The mean age at diagnosis was 53.52 ± 17.46 years in the studied population, with 380 (54.4%) males and 319 (45.6%) females. B-cell lymphoma (BCL) accounted for 86.3% while T-cell neoplasms accounted for 13.7%. The most common subtype was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (54%) followed by follicular lymphoma (FL) (17.2%). Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) represented 3% of all BCL and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) comprised less than 2%. Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) and Burkitt's lymphomas represented 3 and 1.7% respectively. 36.5% of the patients had extranodal disease at diagnosis. High-grade tumor represented 80.1% with 33.1% stage IV disease. CONCLUSION: These observations indicate that the epidemiological patterns of NHLs in Lebanon were comparable to Western countries. Aggressive lymphomas account for the majority of NHLs in Lebanon.

COVID-19 pandemic and mental health in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate depression, stress, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive behaviours in the Lebanese population in response to COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted between March and April 2020 on 386 participants randomly recruited from Lebanese general population. RESULTS: Following the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon compared to was not significantly associated with higher stress, higher depression, lower obsessive-compulsive traits, higher anxiety. Moreover, higher compulsion (Beta = 0.092), having a university level of education (Beta = 0.573), intermediate income (Beta = 1.889), following the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon all of the time (Beta = 7.064), most of the time (Beta = 5.592), sometimes (Beta = 4.235) and little of the time (Beta = 7.676) were significantly associated with a higher hygienic prevention practices score. Higher age (Beta = -0.051), being a male (Beta = -1.432), higher depression (Beta = -0.083) and practicing religion some of the time (Beta = -0.826) were significantly associated with a lower hygienic prevention practices score. CONCLUSION: This study found a strong interrelationship between psychological stress, depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive traits during the COVID-19 pandemic and identified the most vulnerable sub-groups in the Lebanese population. Additional measures should be deployed by health authorities in Lebanon and worldwide to face the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.Key pointsFollowing the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon compared to not was significantly associated with higher stress, higher depression, lower obsessive-compulsive disorder, higher anxiety.Higher compulsion, having a university level of education, following the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon were significantly associated with a higher hygienic prevention practices score.Higher depression, male gender, and practicing religion some of the time were significantly associated with a lower hygienic prevention practices score.Additional measures should be deployed by health authorities in Lebanon and worldwide to face the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.

A case report of thyroid-associated Orbitopathy with elevated TPO antibodies.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid associated orbitopathy (TAO) is defined as an immune mediated inflammatory process affecting the extraocular muscles, connective and adipose tissue of uncertain etiopathogenesis. TAO are classically described in Grave's disease (GD) however it may occur in euthyroid and hypothyroid patients. Those patients usually test positive for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone receptor antibodies (TRAb). For instance, only few cases of severe Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) associated orbitopathy with negative TRAb are reported to date. CASE PRESENTATION: Herewith we report a rare case of a middle-aged female who presented with bilateral progressive upper and lower palpebral edema and a unilateral marked proptosis associated with asthenia, headache and decrease in visual acuity. Biological investigation was notable for high levels of anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (Anti-TPO) in an otherwise euthyroid patient with negative TRAb. Orbital Magnetic resonance imaging revealed edema of the extraocular muscles and inflammation of periorbital soft tissue. The patient received a treatment with intravenous methylprednisolone followed by oral treatment with prednisone. This regimen was both effective and safe with minimal metabolic side effects in our patient. CONCLUSION: Minor ocular manifestations of HT are common; however, severe sight threatening ophtalmopathy in the absence of TRAb is rare. Multiple differential diagnosis should be considered and investigated before diagnosing this rare entity. Management of similar cases is currently based on reports and no clear guidelines have been elaborated, corticosteroids is the mainstream of treatment with a potential benefit of selenium supplementation in mild to moderate cases.

Personality traits, emotional intelligence and decision-making styles in Lebanese universities medical students.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to assess the impact of personality traits on emotional intelligence (EI) and decision-making among medical students in Lebanese Universities and to evaluate the potential mediating role-played by emotional intelligence between personality traits and decision-making styles in this population. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted between June and December 2019 on 296 general medicine students. RESULTS: Higher extroversion was associated with lower rational decision-making style, whereas higher agreeableness and conscientiousness were significantly associated with a higher rational decision-making style. More extroversion and openness to experience were significantly associated with a higher intuitive style, whereas higher agreeableness and conscientiousness were significantly associated with lower intuitive style. More agreeableness and conscientiousness were significantly associated with a higher dependent decision-making style, whereas more openness to experience was significantly associated with less dependent decision-making style. More agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism were significantly associated with less spontaneous decision-making style. None of the personality traits was significantly associated with the avoidant decision-making style. Emotional intelligence seemed to fully mediate the association between conscientiousness and intuitive decision-making style by 38% and partially mediate the association between extroversion and openness to experience with intuitive decision-making style by 49.82 and 57.93% respectively. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests an association between personality traits and decision-making styles. The results suggest that EI showed a significant positive effect on intuitive decision-making style and a negative effect on avoidant and dependent decision-making styles. Additionally, our study underlined the role of emotional intelligence as a mediator factor between personality traits (namely conscientiousness, openness, and extroversion) and decision-making styles.