Trial reportThe British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science2019
Effectiveness of psychological treatments for depression and alcohol use disorder delivered by community-based counsellors: two pragmatic randomised controlled trials within primary healthcare in Nepal.
Trial report in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05579210 (Developing and Implementing an Online Relapse Prevention Psychotherapy Program for Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 49 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Developing and Implementing an Online Relapse Prevention Psychotherapy Program for Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder
Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Integrating Depression and Alcohol Use Care Into Primary Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Meta-Analysis.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Pooled it
- Psychosocial and pharmacologic interventions to reduce harmful alcohol use in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Patient-level interventions to reduce alcohol-related harms in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-summary.PLoS medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Primary-level worker interventions for the care of people living with mental disorders and distress in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach to optimise outpatient mental, neurological, and substance-use disorder treatment cascades in Mozambique: a cluster-randomised trial.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Task-sharing and telemedicine delivery of psychotherapy to treat perinatal depression: a pragmatic, noninferiority randomized trial.Nature medicine · 2025Trial
- Healthcare use and costs among individuals receiving mental health services for depression within primary care in Nepal.BMC health services research · 2022Trial
- Effects of intervention on lifestyle changes among coronary artery disease patients: A 6-month follow-up study.Nursing open · 2022Trial
- Adapting behavioral activation for perinatal depression and anxiety in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice.Journal of affective disorders · 2022Trial
- Treatment Preferences for Pharmacological versus Psychological Interventions among Primary Care Providers in Nepal: Mixed Methods Analysis of a Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Digital Training for Non-Specialist Health Workers to Deliver a Brief Psychological Treatment for Depression in Primary Care in India: Findings from a Randomized Pilot Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Trial
- Just in Time Adaptive Interventions for Behavioral Activation in Patients with Depression (JADE): protocol of a design, feasibility and preliminary effectiveness study.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2026Article
- Article
- Programme for the Effective Promotion of Maternal Psychosocial Wellbeing (PREPWELL) in Ghana: Development and field-testing of a mHealth Intervention in a rural setting.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Scaling up the task-sharing of an evidence-based psychological treatment for depression in rural India: an implementation study.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Development of a digital program for training non-specialist providers to deliver a psychosocial intervention for depression: a formative study to support scaling up task-shared depression care in the United States.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- A guide to selecting psychological interventions that can be delivered by people who are not mental health specialists in low-resource settings.PLOS global public health · 2025Review
- Global, regional and national burden of depressive disorders in adolescents and young adults, 1990-2021: systematic analysis of the global burden of disease study 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Participatory asset mapping and photovoice interviews to scope cultural and community resources to reduce alcohol harm in Chitwan, Nepal.Perspectives in public health · 2024Article
- Integration of passive sensing technology to enhance delivery of psychological interventions for mothers with depression: the StandStrong study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEvidence shows benefits of psychological treatments in low-resource countries, yet few government health systems include psychological services.AimEvaluating the clinical value of adding psychological treatments, delivered by community-based counsellors, to primary care-based mental health services for depression and alcohol use disorder (AUD), as recommended by the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP).
methodTwo randomised controlled trials, separately for depression and AUD, were carried out. Participants were randomly allocated (1:1) to mental healthcare delivered by mhGAP-trained primary care workers (psychoeducation and psychotropic medicines when indicated), or the same services plus individual psychological treatments (Healthy Activity Program for depression and Counselling for Alcohol Problems). Primary outcomes were symptom severity, measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 item (PHQ-9) for depression and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test for AUD, and functional impairment, measured using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS), at 12 months post-enrolment.
resultsParticipants with depression in the intervention arm (n = 60) had greater reduction in PHQ-9 and WHODAS scores compared with participants in the control (n = 60) (PHQ-9: M = -5.90, 95% CI -7.55 to -4.25, β = -3.68, 95% CI -5.68 to -1.67, P < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.66; WHODAS: M = -12.21, 95% CI -19.58 to -4.84, β = -10.74, 95% CI -19.96 to -1.53, P= 0.022, Cohen's d = 0.42). For the AUD trial, no significant effect was found when comparing control (n = 80) and intervention participants (n = 82).
conclusionAdding a psychological treatment delivered by community-based counsellors increases treatment effects for depression compared with only mhGAP-based services by primary health workers 12 months post-treatment.Declaration of interestNone.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.