ArticlePLOS mental health2026
Group psychosocial interventions for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries: A realist systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
Article in PLOS mental health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Acceptability and feasibility of the Ushirikiano treatment model for Kenyan adolescents: a pilot randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Trial
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Group psychosocial interventions can be a scalable treatment for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) but effects are heterogeneous. Little is known about how intervention mechanisms and context interact to generate different outcomes in different populations. We conducted a realist systematic review, combining traditional systematic review methods with analysis of intervention mechanisms and contextual factors to further understanding of complex interventions. This involved: (i) a scoping review to build initial theory and inform data extraction and analysis; (ii) systematically searching six databases for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of group psychosocial interventions for participants aged 0-19 years in LMICs (21 November 2022, updated 26 April 2024); (iii) extracting data on outcomes, contextual factors, and intervention mechanisms to build hypotheses about how context interacts with mechanisms to generate outcomes (context-mechanism-outcome configurations; CMOCs); (iv) narratively synthesising CMOCs into wider programme theories about how and why psychosocial interventions work; (v) meta-analyses and meta-regressions to assess trends and test CMOCs. We included 38 RCTs with data for 6,086 participants (52% female, mean age 13). These data informed 14 programme theories including theories that interventions work best when adapted for participant cognitive level, incorporating age-appropriate activities, accounting for local gender-specific issues, and being culturally adapted. Pooled post-intervention effect sizes were -0.72 (95% CI -1.01 to -0.42, p < 0.001) for depression, -0.90 (95% CI -1.57 to -0.23, p = 0.014) for anxiety, and -0.71 (95% CI -1.05 to -0.38, p < 0.001) for PTSD. The only significant results in meta-regressions were larger effect sizes for older children and in populations without exposure to conflict for depression symptoms only. Socio-demographic and contextual factors may influence how interventions work and help to explain the heterogeneity of effects. More high-quality RCTs with moderation and mediation analyses are needed to explore the transferability of these interventions.PROSPERO registration: CRD42022364043.
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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.