Psychological Treatments for the World: Lessons from Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
Common mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress, are leading causes of disability worldwide. Treatment for these disorders is limited in low- and middle-income countries. This systematic review synthesizes the implementation processes and examines the effectiveness of psychological treatments for common mental disorders in adults delivered by nonspecialist providers in low- and middle-income countries. In total, 27 trials met the eligibility criteria; most treatments targeted depression or posttraumatic stress. Treatments were commonly delivered by community health workers or peers in primary care or community settings; they usually were delivered with fewer than 10 sessions over 2-3 months in an individual, face-to-face format. Treatments included common elements, such as nonspecific engagement and specific domains of behavioral, interpersonal, emotional, and cognitive elements. The pooled effect size was 0.49 (95% confidence interval = 0.36-0.62), favoring intervention conditions. Our review demonstrates that psychological treatments-comprising a parsimonious set of common elements and delivered by a low-cost, widely available human resource-have moderate to strong effects in reducing the burden of common mental disorders.
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Psychotherapy
- Mental Health
- Mental Disorders
- Humans
- Global Health
- Developing Countries
- Clinical Psychology
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology
- 5202 Biological psychology
- 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Start / End Page
Location
Related Subject Headings
- Psychotherapy
- Mental Health
- Mental Disorders
- Humans
- Global Health
- Developing Countries
- Clinical Psychology
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology
- 5202 Biological psychology
- 5201 Applied and developmental psychology