Traumatic stress in Egyptian doctors during COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic has heavily burdened healthcare systems throughout the world, causing substantial mental distress to medical professionals. We aim to investigate the associated traumatic stress in a sample of practicing physicians in Egypt during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-sectional study assessed depression, and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among a sample of Egyptian physicians using an electronic survey. It included demographic and practice-related data, PTSD Checklist - Civilian Version (PCL-C) and the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Of the 124 respondents, 66.9% were at high risk for depression and 37.9% met criteria for diagnosis of PTSD. Female gender and perceived work-related stress were significantly associated with PTSD. PTSD and depression severity scores were positively correlated. These findings highlight the importance of timely mental support and intervention for medical workers.

Reliability and Validity of Arabic Translation of Child Sexual Abuse Questionnaire for Use in Children and Adolescents.

Child Sexual Abuse Questionnaire was developed to assess Child Sexual Victimization experiences, and the associated characteristics and circumstances. The aim of the study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Arabic Child Sexual Abuse Questionnaire (CSAQ) in a sample of Egyptian children. The original CSAQ-English was translated into Arabic based on the established guidelines. Then, a cross-sectional study was carried out on a group of 150 male and female Egyptian children aging 8-14 years to test the translated questionnaire for validity and reliability. The Statistical analysis was performed to internal consistency, Item-Total correlation, as well as Inter-Item correlation. Cronbach's Alpha coefficient to assess internal consistency was found to be satisfactory, 0.88 and 0.89 for CSA without physical contact items and CSA with physical contact items, respectively. The item-total correlations were found to be within r = .234; P = .004 to r = .927; P = <0.001, while Inter-item correlations ranged from 0.125 to 0.928. The CSAQ-Arabic version is a reliable and valid tool that can be used by researchers in clinical practice to measure sexual victimization experiences in Arabic-speaking children based on the content and face validation together with a good internal reliability.

Relation of Non-Suicidal Self-Harm to Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia in Sexually Abused Children and Adolescents.

Child sexual abuse is a global issue affecting children. It burdens the entire society physically and mentally. It can cause eating disorders and non-suicidal self-injury in abused people (NSSI). Emotion regulation (ER) is an important etiological link between purging, NSSI, and abusive experiences. We interviewed 80 people, ranged in age from 13 to 20, of whom 62.5% had CSA, versus 30 healthy controls. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale, an eating disorders clinical interview, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to assess emotion dysregulation, the Self-punishment Scale to assess NSSI, the Mini-Kid for children under the age of 18, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID I) for those aged 18 and older were given to victims. CSA was found in 62.5% of the participants. Emotional dysregulation was strongly linked to CSA. Descriptive and identifying difficulties in feelings and externally oriented thinking (p0.001, p0.03, p0.001) were found to be associated with the development of alexithymia. CSA participants had higher NSSI than controls, with 28% having severe self-punishment symptoms (P0.001). Finally, CSA is common in kids and teens. It has negative effects on future generations' mental and physical health. All of these conditions can lead to alexithymia.