Psychological therapies for the treatment of mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries affected by humanitarian crises
Citation: Purgato M, Gastaldon C, Papola D, et al. Psychological therapies for the treatment of mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries affected by humanitarian crises. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2018;(7):CD011849. Podcast available in EN / FA / HR / ZH.
Free to view: Yes.
Language: Abstract available in EN / ES / FA / FR. Plain language summary available in DE / EN / ES / FR / JA / MS / PT / RU / ZH. Full text available in EN / ES.
Funding: WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health and Service Evaluation, Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine, and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Italy; and Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
What is this? People living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) affected by humanitarian crises are increasingly vulnerable to developing mental health disorders. These include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety and psychological therapies might be used to treat these conditions.
In this Cochrane Review, the authors searched for randomized trials which studied the effectiveness and acceptability of psychological therapies compared to control conditions for people with mental health disorders. They did not restrict their searches by language or type of publication and did the search in February 2016. They included 33 randomized trials (3523 participants). They also identified an additional 10 studies that are awaiting classification and 3 ongoing studies. The included studies were from China (5 studies), Democratic Republic of the Congo (3), Egypt (1), Iraq (2), Kosovo (1), Kurdistan (2), Mozambique (1), Pakistan (2), Thailand (3), Turkey (4), Rwanda (3) and Uganda (3). Audio podcasts for this review are available here[https://www.cochrane.org/podcasts/10.1002/14651858.CD011849.pub2}
What was found? Psychological therapies have large or moderate effects in reducing PTSD, depressive and anxiety symptoms in adults living in humanitarian settings in LMICs (low quality evidence).
Psychological therapies may decrease PTSD symptoms in children and adolescents living in humanitarian settings in LMICs (very low‐quality evidence).
Implications: The authors of this review concluded that psychological therapies are effective in decreasing PTSD and depressive and anxiety symptoms in adults and in children and adolescents; and revealed a gap in the evidence base for longer term outcomes and in children and adolescents.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of Place of residence and age.
This summary was prepared by Dea Sulaj and edited and finalized by Mike Clarke.