Overview
Brandon Kohrt is a medical anthropologist and psychiatrist who completed his MD-PhD at Emory University in 2009. He is currently Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Global Health, and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. Dr. Kohrt has worked in Nepal since 1996 researching and aiding victims of war including child soldiers. Since 2006 has worked with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal. Dr. Kohrt has been a consultant to The Carter Center Mental Health Program Liberia Initiative since 2010. Dr. Kohrt is the component lead for the Grand Challenges Canada funded Mental Health Beyond Facilities (mhBeF) program in Nepal, Liberia, and Uganda. Dr. Kohrt has published scientific articles and book chapters about mental health among conflict- and disaster-affected populations in Nepal, Liberia, and Haiti. Dr. Kohrt has collaborated on numerous documentary films about human rights and global health including Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Scholarly Works
Perspectives on non-specialist training for mental health care delivery in South Africa: the importance of common factors
Journal article Ssm Mental Health · December 1, 2026 Task-sharing, or the distribution of tasks to non-specialists, is a key strategy for expanding access to mental health services, particularly in low- and lower-middle income countries. However, training practices are not standardized and non-specialist tra ... Full text CiteExploring GPT-based models for depression detection in adolescents using naturalistic speech: A proof-of-concept study.
Journal article J Affect Disord · October 1, 2026 This study investigates whether GPT-4o, a Large Language Model (LLM), can identify depression from daily, naturalistic non-symptom-specific speech transcripts; how its performance varies with input volume; and how it compares to other LLMs. Thirty Brazilia ... Full text Link to item CiteLongitudinal transcriptomic profiles associated with onset and remission of adolescent depression.
Journal article Brain Behav Immun · August 2026 BACKGROUND: Depression is a leading cause of disability among adolescents, yet the biological mechanisms underlying its onset and clinical course remain poorly understood. Dysregulation of immune and metabolic pathways has been increasingly implicated in a ... Full text Link to item CiteRecent Grants
Optimizing Provider Attitudes and Competence in Learning Mental Health Systems (OPAL)
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2016 - 2017Reducing Barriers to Mental Health Task Sharing: Stigma Reduction in Primary Care
Clinical TrialPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2014 - 2017View All Grants