ArticleThe lancet. Psychiatry2021
The epidemiology of psychiatric disorders in Africa: a scoping review.
Article in The lancet. Psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Quality of life among people living with mental illness and predictors in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Pooled it
- Socio-genomics of intellectual disability in African populations: top research-producing countries.Journal of community genetics · 2026Review
- Neuropsychiatry genetics in Africa.Nature communications · 2026Review
- An exploratory study of anxiety symptoms and associated factors among Kenyan youth recruited from colleges and communities in urban and peri-urban areas in the Nairobi Metropolitan.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Unignorable burden of mental health disorders among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: a call for urgent action.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Sociodemographic Factors and Determinants of Mental Health in the African American Population A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- What does the profile of psychosis in Africa tell us?Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2026Review
- Extreme weather events and mental health impacts in West Africa: A systematic review of evidence gaps.Journal of public health in Africa · 2026Review
- Stratified and geographic patterns of depression and anxiety in Mozambican women: Mental health policy implications.PloS one · 2026Article
- Article
- Prevalence and social determinants of anxiety and depressive disorders and symptoms among adults in Ghana: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Stakeholders' perceptions of recovery from psychosis in Blantyre, Malawi: Definitions, goals, and interventions.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Article
- Epidemiology of violence and suicide risk in Senegal: A nationwide survey in 2023.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Psychological distress among unaccompanied migrants and persons prone to statelessness in Ghana: prevalence and associated factors from a community-based cross-sectional study.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Prevalence and regional disparities in probable mental health conditions among persons aged 10 years and older in Uganda: Evidence from the 2024 National Population and Housing Census.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Lived experiences of auditory verbal hallucinations in a Northern Tanzania mental health clinic and implications for intervention adaptation.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Trauma exposure among individuals with mood disorders: a cross-sectional study at a tertiary psychiatric facility in Uganda.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Food insecurity and mental health outcomes among people with HIV in West Africa.AIDS (London, England) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
This scoping review of population-based epidemiological studies was done to provide background information on the prevalences and distribution of psychiatric disorders in Africa for calls to broaden diversity in psychiatric genetic studies. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science to retrieve relevant literature in English, French, and Portuguese from Jan 1, 1984, to Aug 18, 2020. In 36 studies from 12 African countries, the lifetime prevalence ranged from 3·3% to 9·8% for mood disorders, from 5·7% to 15·8% for anxiety disorders, from 3·7% to 13·3% for substance use disorders, and from 1·0% to 4·4% for psychotic disorders. Although the prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders appears to be lower than that observed in research outside the continent, we identified similar distributions by gender, although not by age or urbanicity. This review reveals gaps in epidemiological research on psychiatric disorders and opportunities to leverage existing epidemiological and genetic research within Africa to advance our understanding of psychiatric disorders. Studies that are methodologically comparable but diverse in geographical context are needed to advance psychiatric epidemiology and provide a foundation for understanding environmental risk in genetic studies of diverse populations globally.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.