The Arabic Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences in patients with psychotic disorders: a clinical validation

Background Psychotic experiences are reported in the general population. The Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences (QPE) was created to test the phenomenological features of these experiences and compare them with those reported in patients with psychiatric and other medical conditions. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the QPE.

Methods We recruited 50 patients with psychotic disorders from the Hamad Medical Hospital in Doha, Qatar. Patients underwent assessment over three sessions with trained interviewees using the Arabic versions of QPE, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF). Patients were also reassessed using the QPE and GAF after 14-days from the initial assessment in order to test for the stability of the scale. In this respect, this is the first study that assesses the test–retest reliability of the QPE. The psychometric properties including convergent validity, stability, and internal consistency met the benchmarked criteria.

Results Results confirmed that the Arabic version of QPE accurately measured the experiences of patients that were also reported using the PANSS, an internationally accepted, well-established scale for measuring psychotic symptom severity.

Conclusion We propose the use of the QPE to describe the phenomenology of PEs across modalities in Arabic speaking communities.