Arabic Translation and Adaptation of the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE) Checklist and Manual.

INTRODUCTION

Despite the increasing use of the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE) in psychopathology research, no Arabic translation and adaptation has, to our knowledge, been published.

METHODS

The process of Arabic translation and adaptation of the EASE checklist and manual was conducted through a staged process that included forward translation by an independent medical translator, iterative expert review for semantic and conceptual equivalence, monolingual Arabic review, and final harmonization. Particular attention was given to difficult technical terms and to the descriptions of EASE items, in order to facilitate the exploration of subtle anomalous self-experiences through semi-structured clinical interviews. Additional explanatory footnotes and references were added to the Arabic EASE manual to improve comprehensibility and clinical usability.

CONCLUSION

The present work provides the first Arabic translation and cultural-linguistic adaptation of the EASE checklist and manual. The Arabic EASE is intended for use in clinical and research settings where the exploration of schizophrenia spectrum psychopathology is conducted in Arabic, provided that the examiner has adequate training and familiarity with the instrument and the phenomena explored. Future studies are needed to examine the reliability and clinical utility of the translated instrument in Arabic-speaking populations.