Background Shared decision making (SDM) utilisation has increased in recent years with a noted increase in the effectiveness of treatment. Evidence supports the fact that decision aids (DAs) improve patient’s participation in SDM more than standard counselling. DAs are designed to help patients understand possible treatment options and encourage them to participate in SDM processes.

Purpose To develop and validate a DA for Arabic patients with depression.

Material and methods A six page DA booklet published by Agency for Health Care Research and Quality was adapted and translated to Arabic using Brisling’s back translation model. The work of Al-Muhtaseb was followed to produce a natural Arabic text. Validation was carried out by 24 experts (physicians, pharmacists, academic staff and depressed patients). International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) criteria checklist was used to examine the DA structure and content.

Results Experts strongly agreed that the DA would increase patient’s recognition, knowledge and understanding of their condition and options, based on IPDAS. 83% of experts reported that DAs provide information about options in sufficient detail for decision making, 68% present probabilities of outcomes is an unbiased and understandable way, 85% clarify and express patient values and 87% provide structure guidance in deliberation and communication, with a total of 81% for the whole content criteria. Secondly, the development process had 63% positive feedback. In particular, 83% agreed that the information was presented in a balanced manner, 65% that there was a systematic development process, 71% that scientific evidence data were used, 69% that plain language was used but less than half of the experts agreed with the disclosing conflicts of interest. Finally, the sum of expected effectiveness criteria was very high (93%). In addition, experts provided constructive feedback with some modification regarding the language and general layout of the DA.

Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, we have developed and validated the first Arabic DA based on IPDAS criteria for depressed patients. Future research needs to assess the effectiveness of this DA on involvement in SDM for depressed patients.

No conflict of interest.