We will present the themes from the thematic analysis in two sections: 1) those related to the translation, cultural adaptation, and administration of Arabic CDSS and ISST, and 2) themes that are associated with the Arab and Qatari cultures.
Items Related To Scales’ Design And Administration
Design of ISST: One central point related to the ISST design is the lack of instructions on how to deliver the questions. The CRC commented on this point: “when assessing the risk of suicide, the first question asks if the patient has any suicidal thoughts. If the patient answered, NO, I have no suicidal thoughts, you still have to ask the following questions, which are all designed to elaborate more on suicidal thoughts.” This series of questions will increase the risk of provoking anxiety in the patient. Also, there are no prompt or explicit instructions to tell the CRCs when to skip the following question or to continue when appropriate. So, the team thought that having clear guidance in place would save time and avoid asking unnecessary items that could impact the patient's cooperation in completing the questionnaires.
CRCs discussed the time frame of the patients' suicidal thoughts. The team questioned the seven-day criteria linked to this scale; they raised the scenario in which a patient had suicidal thoughts 10–15 days ago but not lately, for instance, wondering if such patients would be automatically excluded from the study. However, this is not the case in the CDSS as it has clear instructions to prepare the CRC and the patient for the next questions. "As per the instructions in CDSS, we do not have to read all the potential answers in advance. We ask, wait, and then we elaborate to get the right answer; hence, it is the answer based on the assessment more than giving scores." Another CRC commented on the differences in time frames in the two scales when assessing suicide: "using two different scales to assess the same element with two different time frames will affect the reliability of the patients' responses, which might affect the rating scores. So, we should clarify this to the patient…".
CDSS, self-rating vs. rater’s assessment
The group discussed the differences between the self-rating scales vs. those based on raters' assessment. They agreed that “It is a lot easier to get the answers from the patients by reading all the potential answers among all the scales, and the patients will pick what suit them." Also, they elaborated that with more explanation and re-wording, the final rating will depend on the assessment of each rater, which might introduce more discrepancies among the CRCs’ scores.
The group agreed that CDSS is designed to be used by trained raters and not intended for self-assessment. Thus, the best approach is to follow the standard procedure to administer the CDSS, where they read the answers, and then patients can pick their choices without their interference to avoid affecting the final score. However, one CRC commented that: “because it is based on your assessment, again you might have to make explanations, and depending on the answers you decide where they fit; the answer is not yes or no... You have to use your assessment, especially in the last item, as it completely depends on your assessment, not on what the patient says."
CDSS, depression vs. negative symptoms: The group elaborated on how and what in the CDSS to differentiate depressive symptoms from negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Examples of questions used to facilitate the discussion included: "Are you able to differentiate, by using CDSS, between depression and negative symptoms? Do the questions help to differentiate these two entities, or they still look the same for you?” After significant deliberation and guidance from the PI, the group agreed on the following points:
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“It is very challenging to differentiate between negative symptoms and depression.”
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“The concepts themselves overlap a lot; in depression, the patient could be agitated or could be passive; he could be sleeping a lot, or sleepless; he could be anxious or blocked. The challenge is that depressed patients might feel hopeless, always bored; everything they are doing is wrong, wish to die. But in schizophrenia patients with negative symptoms, they don't tell such things; they will say nothing; if you ask him, he will say, I'm okay, everything is good, and you barely get yes or no answers from them. Even they both might have a flat affect, but the core is different.”
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“Schizophrenia patients suffering from negative symptoms would not talk about depression even they both look the same. You cannot get him to elaborate…”
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"It is challenging, patients with schizophrenia might get depression separate from the schizophrenia, and this will predispose them to suicide…”
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“Depressed person is the person who changed from a productive person to someone who is not, while someone experiencing negative symptoms (like alogia, no motivation, no initiative) will be different… will always be like that, and most do not recover..."
Sensitive Issues In Arab Culture
One CRC said, “The scales are culturally sensitive…”, and he suggested, “spending more time at the beginning of the interview to explain it and to know how you will enter the grey area, this will probably help the patient to feel more comfortable to answer the questions… meaning to prepare the patient for the upcoming questions… and I'm talking about this and that…etc., so that could probably prepare them to the culturally-sensitive matters…”.
Rapport with patients
CRCs discussed the patient-clinician relationship and how that could be essential in developing a connection with the patient. All agreed that in the Arab culture, doctors have the authority to ask, discuss, and get the answers from the patients in a much comfortable way than the CRCs do. “In the clinical setting, if you are a doctor, you have the authority; for example, the patient thinks, “I should tell the truth to the doctor and be honest and say what’s on my mind…” They did not feel that this applies to their relationship with patients. However, CRC’s pointed out that training and expertise have helped them to quickly develop a rapport with the patients, considering the amount of time they have. So, the question was raised by one of the CRC’s "...Can we establish rapport within five minutes with the patient? …" The group agreed that “… the idea is not to jump and start into the topic if you feel that the patient is not comfortable and relaxed, but yes, he will not trust you and tell you all about his life; also, you need to know that even in the clinical setting, you can’t afford more than this time to do so…”
Suicide and religion: ISST was designed to assess suicide among schizophrenia patients. However, suicide is a taboo within the Muslim community. As the subjects were Arabs and Muslims, the CRCs repeated: "It is very challenging to open and discuss this issue with the participants." In response to the question: “Have you ever felt that talking about suicidality is something culturally sensitive?” One CRC replied, “…yes, of course, and the patients are mostly upset… and try to convince us it's not good, and we are not allowed to talk about it. They were always saying phrases related to religion that it's something completely forbidden… reacting defensively.” Another participant added, “I can't recall someone who was super comfortable talking about this; even in the control group, they flip when you ask them about suicidality, it's always a closed subject for them."
Another interesting point to mention “…even if they experienced this at some point in their life, and although they were admitted with suicidal thoughts, if you ask them, they will say no, so, at this point, you can't ask and tell them no it is okay let's talk about it." Accordingly, the moderator asked, “Did you feel that the patients are hiding the reality, or they were genuine in their answers?” The answer was, “Well, there are some of them who hide, and others are genuine, but down the line, you ask them several questions about the suicidality, and eventually, the reality will come out. I do not think they are comfortable talking about this…"
Also, question 8 in ISST covering the deterrents against attempting suicide might complicate the assessment further as “…we still have to explain it by mentioning religion or family as possible deterrents.” However, to minimize the cultural sensitivity, the group discussed the approaches to assess suicide in Arab culture without making the patients feel guilty and focusing on their suffering and how the disease can alter the way we think and act on things. The group agreed that building rapport and addressing this matter using a neutral approach might help in the rater’s assessment of suicide risk in this population.
CRCs pointed out that Arab and Muslim patients who have a mental illness mostly seek religious healers for blessing and spiritual support. The mental health professional is their last stop to seek professional advice. They confirmed that building rapport and spending more time with subjects was productive, especially when introducing the issue of suicide in a non-threatening and non-judgmental way.
Language- dialects and cultural influence
CRCs discussed the difficulties they encountered during the scales' administration in terms of language. The spoken Arabic language has many dialects depending on the country of origin. It is common to find one word with several meanings, but “…more so in the various Arabic dialects…” The formal Arabic language is not the same as the spoken dialect in each Arab country. Words can have one meaning in a dialect and have a different sense in another, which makes choosing one form of Arabic translation virtually impossible. Therefore, using the classical "formal" state of the Arabic language was the only way forward to overcome this issue; please refer to (Hammoudeh et al., 2016) [25] for more details about the translation process used for the scales. The classical form of the Arabic language is widely shared, understood, and used on all legal documentation in the Arab world; it was, therefore, easy for our CRCs to modify the written translated scales into acceptable and straightforward forms when interviewing the patients.
The translation of some terms while interviewing the patients was a challenge for the CRCs and the patients. For example, the translation for item 4 in the ISST “passive suicidal ideation" in the Arabic language was not very clear, which “we always have to explain it more and give more detailed examples.” Also, in item 7 about "Delusions," patients would understand this word differently; more explanation was always required to provide the right meaning to make it clear for the patient because, in Arabic dialects, there is no one translation for this word. An explanation of having delusions was needed; this is where the importance of receiving professional training was highly emphasized and recommended.
Mental illness and stigma
The team commented on the stigma in the Arab world, particularly in the Middle East countries where mental health illness is profoundly affected by the culture and the local norms. For example, “…family interference plays a significant role in this region where most of the mental illness cases are not properly managed, simply to avoid being labeled as a psychiatric patient.” We extensively discussed stigma as it has affected the recruitment process from the CRC's point of view. One CRC said, "… I have come across this situation more than once, where the patient refused to come for a follow-up interview in the validation project because they want to avoid being near the psychiatric hospital and avoid being spotted by someone they know. They always request to meet at the general hospital…” The female CRCs added that this social stigma is more so for women with mental illness where “this stigma is aggravated by the well-known gender disparity in the Arab culture.”