Biomedical subjects

N Melhem

Publications and source records attributed to N Melhem.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Use and abuse of licit and illicit substances: prevalence and risk factors among students in Lebanon.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims at examining the patterns of 'substance' use in Lebanon among an 'at risk' population, the university students. METHOD: A stratified cluster sample of 1,851 students from two major universities was included in the study and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (version 3) was administered. RESULTS: The prevalence of nicotine users in the sample was 18.3% and of ever consuming alcohol 49.4%. 2.1% of the sample were alcohol abusers and 2.4% alcohol dependents according to DSM-III criteria. For the remaining substances, tranquilizers were found to have the highest rate of ever use (10.2%), whereas heroin had the lowest rate (0.4%); the rates of abuse and dependence in these categories (other than alcohol and nicotine) following DSM-III criteria ranged from 0.1 to 0.8%. CONCLUSION: University students in Lebanon in this study have relatively low rates of use and abuse of substances but this might be changing.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

The War Events Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: The measurement of exposure to war in large epidemiological studies necessitates the use of easily administered and reliable questionnaires that cover a range of war events. The War Event Questionnaire (WEQ) was designed by our group to address these issues and has proved to be quite easy to administer. The aim of this study is to establish the inter-rater reliability of the WEQ. METHOD: Two trained interviewers alternated in administering parts I and II of the WEQ. RESULTS: The Kappa statistics used to calculate the degree of agreement between the two raters ranged from 0.281 to 0.774 for part I events and from 0.189 to 1.000 for part II events. CONCLUSION: The WEQ has proved to be a useful instrument that addresses both objective and the subjective war experiences; it is a fairly reliable instrument and has helped us avoid tautological assessment of the mental health effects of war.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Major depression and external stressors: the Lebanon Wars.

This article examines the effect of war events and pre-war depression on the prevalence of major depression during war. A total of 658 subjects aged 18-65 years were randomly selected from four Lebanese communities differentially exposed to the Lebanon Wars and were interviewed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (Arabic version). The individual levels of exposure to war events were assessed through a War Events Questionnaire. The lifetime prevalence of the DSM-III-R-defined major depression varied across the four communities from 16.3 to 41.9%; the final parameters predicting major depression since the onset of the wars were: depression before the wars and exposure to the wars. Both, individual levels of exposure to war and a history of pre-war depression, predict the development of depression during war.

Adult↗