Affective Reactions to Breast Cancer Diagnosis among Arab Women

Fido, Abdullahi; Omar, Y.T.; Al‐Fayez, Ghenaim

doi:10.1159/000157451

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Just like cancer and mental illness, Arab culture regards infertility as a serious illness, which causes are attributed to be as result of witchcraft or, punishment from God. The affected individuals tend to adopt a fatalistic attitude and accept their illness at face value considering their suffering as God's immutable will to test their characters (Fido et al, 1992). In this study, infertile women gave a wide range of explanations for the causes of their infertility.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Coping with Infertility among Kuwaiti Women: Cultural Perspectives

Fido

Zahid

2004

Int J Soc Psychiatry

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The prevalence and severity of psychological distress in this sample of infertile Kuwaiti women indicates the appropriateness of referring these patients for psychological evaluation. Successful programmes in dealing with infertility in Kuwait need to include the establishment of a community based intervention strategy to educate people about infertility and to give guidelines for treatment options.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Coping with Infertility among Kuwaiti Women: Cultural Perspectives

Fido

Zahid

2004

Int J Soc Psychiatry

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“…Women are positioned in the genealogical tree as a member of the husband's family and they are honored primarily for their ability to produce healthy sons [30]. Just like cancer and mental illnesses, Arab culture regards autism as a serious illness which causes are attributed to be as result of witchcraft or, punishment from God [31]. Some distressed individuals in this study tended to adopt a fatalistic attitude and accepted their condition at face value considering their suffering as God's Immutable Will to test their characters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological effects of parenting children with autism prospective study in Kuwait

Fido¹,

Saad²

2013

OJPsych

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Background: Recent reports suggest that the prevalence of autism in the Arab world ranges from 1.4 cases per 10,000 children inOmanto 29 per 10,000 children in theUnited Arab Emirates. While these rates are lower than those of the developed world, which are 39 per 10,000 for autism and 77 per 10,000 for all forms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), it does not necessarily mean the condition is less prevalent in the Arab world. Objectives: Studies of parents with children with autism suggest that 35% - 53% of mothers with children show various degrees of depressive symptoms. However, many of these studies were conducted in western countries which still make little inferences about the prevalence of these stresses in Arab countries uncertain. No data are available on the use of the BDI on parents of children with autism in Kuwait. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of parental depression in families of children with autism and in control families. Subjects and Methods: The participants in this study were 120 mothers and fathers of autistic children whose children were attending the Kuwait Autism Center at the time of this study. They were asked to complete the Arabic translated version of the Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI). It consists of 21 symptoms or attitudes commonly seen in patients suffering from depression. The symptoms are rated from “0”to “3”in intensity. The following cut-off points of depressive symptoms were used when interpreting the results in the present study: the range of scores from 0 to 9 indicates no depression, 10 - 20 dysphoria and over 20 depression. Results: The mean standard deviation scores for the mothers of autistic children were 21.2 ÷ 2.9 and 10.3 ÷ 2.1, (p = 0.001) for the control mothers respectively. No significant difference were observed across the samples of fathers other than slight increase for the autistic group. Marital status did not affect the number of mothers of the autism groups who had elevated depression scores, but single mothers in both groups had higher elevated depression scores than mothers living with partners, (x2 = 6.4, p < 0.005). Out of mothers with autistic children, 32.3% had depression and 41.5% had dysphoria while, 10% of control mothers had depression and 16% had dysphoria, x2 = 6.3 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: It is clear from our findings that mothers of autistic children have higher parenting-related stress and psychological distress as compared to controls. It is important to identify and offer appropriate psychiatric support for parents who are depressed since this is a serious problem, and would appear to have the potential to disrupt the family, parenting and child. While problem behavior is not a core element of autism, it might rise to the top of the issue that have to be dealt with first in a clinical setting.

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