To validate the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS) and determine factors associated with the presence of food neophobia (FN) in a sample of Lebanese children.

Cross-sectional study conducted between July and December 2019.

All Lebanese governorates.

Parents of Lebanese children aged 2 to 10 years.

Out of 850 questionnaires, 194 were excluded. The mean age of children was 5·34 ± 2·20 years (50·8 % females); 238 (36·4 %) had low neophobia scores (≤37), whereas 219 (33·5 %) and 197 (30·1 %) had, respectively, moderate (between 38 and 41) and severe neophobia scores (≥42). All items of the FNS were extracted except item 8 and yielded a two-factor solution with Eigenvalues > 1 (variance explained = 51·64 %; Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test = 0·746; Bartlett’s sphericity test P < 0·001; αCronbach = 0·739). Children who refused initially to eat vegetables (β = 5·51), fish (β = 4·57), fruits (β = 4·75) or eggs (β = 2·99) and higher parents’ instrumental feeding scores (β = 0·3) were significantly associated with higher neophobia scores, whereas higher parents’ encouragement scores (β = -0·21) were significantly associated with lower neophobia scores in children.

FN is common in children. Neophobic children tend to have lower variety in their diets. One of the ways to lower the levels of neophobia is the use of encouragement by the parents. In contrast, offering a reward to children for them to eat a certain food was associated with more signs of avoidance. More studies should be conducted to evaluate awareness levels concerning FN.

Agitated patients constitute 10% of all emergency psychiatric treatment. Management guidelines, the preferred treatment of clinicians differ in opinion and practice. In Lebanon, the use of the triple therapy haloperidol plus promethazine plus chlorpromazine (HPC) is frequently used but no studies involving this combination exists.

A pragmatic randomised open trial (September 2018–July 2019) in the Lebanese Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross in Beirut Lebanon involving 100 people requiring urgent intramuscular sedation due to aggressive behaviour were given intramuscular chlorpromazine 100 mg plus haloperidol 5 mg plus promethazine 25 mg (HPC) or intramuscular haloperidol 5 mg plus promethazine 25 mg

Primary outcome data were available for 94 (94%) people. People allocated to the haloperidol plus promethazine (HP) group showed no clear difference at 20 min compared with patients allocated to the HPC group [relative risk (RR) 0.84, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.47–1.50].

Neither intervention consistently impacted the outcome of ‘calm’, or ‘asleep’ and had no discernible effect on the use of restraints, use of additional drugs or recurrence. If clinicians are faced with uncertainty on which of the two intervention combinations to use, the simpler HP is much more widely tested and the addition of chlorpromazine adds no clear benefit with a risk of additional adverse effects.

To validate an Arabic version of the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26) and identify factors (such as depression, stress, anxiety and body dissatisfaction) that might be associated with disordered eating among a sample of the Lebanese population.

Cross-sectional study.

All Lebanese governorates.

A total of 811 participants randomly selected participated in this 5-month study (January–May 2018).

The EAT-26 scale items converged over a solution of six factors that had an eigenvalue over 1, explaining a total of 60·07 % of the variance (Cronbach’s α = 0·895). The prevalence of disordered eating attitudes was 23·8 %. Higher EAT-26 scores (disordered eating attitudes) were significantly associated with higher depression (β = 0·325), higher emotional eating (β = 0·083), daily weighing (β = 3·430), higher physical activity (β = 0·05), starving to reduce weight (β = 4·94) and feeling pressure from TV/magazine to lose weight (β = 3·95).

The Arabic version of EAT-26 can be a useful instrument for screening and assessing disordered eating attitudes in clinical practice and research. Some factors seem to be associated with more disordered eating attitudes among participants for whom psychological counseling may be needed. Yet, our findings are considered preliminary, and further studies are warranted to confirm them.