In this week's PLoS Medicine, Shekhar Saxena of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland and colleagues summarize the recent WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) intervention guide that provides evidence-based management recommendations for mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders. This guide is aimed at reducing the treatment gap for MNS disorders, which is more than 75% in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Further details and background material to the guide can be accessed on the WHO website: http://bit.ly/vKPSRF
The authors recommend that: "In the near future, further efforts should be made to introduce formal evaluations of the capability of [treatment] programs to induce relevant and persistent changes, and to generate useful insights on how implementation in [low- and middle-income countries] should be conducted to maximize benefit at sustainable costs."
The PLoS Medicine Mental Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Collection, a seven-part series of articles published between October 2009 and February 2010, provides further information on mental, neurological, and substance-use disorders in LMICs.
Funding: Funding for the mhGAP Programme, under which the work reported in this manuscript was done, was provided by the following: American Psychiatric Foundation, USA; Association of Aichi Psychiatric Hospitals, Japan; Autism Speaks, USA; CBM; Government of Italy; Government of Japan; Government of The Netherlands; International Bureau for Epilepsy; International League Against Epilepsy; Medical Research Council, UK; National Institute of Mental Health, USA; Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada; Rockefeller Foundation, USA; Shirley Foundation, UK; Syngenta, Switzerland; United Nations Population Fund;World Psychiatric Association. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: JLA was paid in 2007 by Lundbeck S.A. for consultancy preparation of the research protocol for a study on the diagnostic delay in first episode of depression in contact with health care centers in Spain and was paid in 2009 by Sanofi Aventis S.A. for expert testimony on the side effects of veralapride. OO is the current President of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) (http://www.iacapap.org/). JWS served on scientific advisory boards for GlaxoSmithKline (2010), Eisai (2009), and UCB (2009); received funding for travel from UCB (2008) and Janssen (2009); serves on the editorial boards of Lancet Neurology, Epilepsia and Epileptic Disorders; served on the speaker's bureaus of UCB (2009) and GlaxoSmithKline (2009); and has received research support from UCB (grant finished 2010), Eisai (grant finished 2008), the NIH (ongoing grant), the EU FP7 (ongoing grant), the Wellcome Trust (grant finished 2009), WHO (ongoing grant), the National Epilepsy Funds of the Netherlands (ongoing grant), and the Epilepsy Society (ongoing grant). His current position is endowed by the National Society for Epilepsy (UK). SS confirms that the competing interests of JWS were declared, reviewed, and deemed acceptable by the mhGAP Guideline Development Group. All other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: Dua T, Barbui C, Clark N, Fleischmann A, Poznyak V, et al. (2011) Evidence-Based Guidelines for Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Summary of WHO Recommendations. PLoS Med 8(11): e1001122. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001122
CONTACT:
Shekhar Saxena
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse
World Health Organization (WHO)
Geneva
Switzerland
saxenas@who.int
Journal
PLoS Medicine