Browsing by Author "Jordans, Mark JD"

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    Accuracy of proactive case finding for mental disorders by community informants in Nepal.
    (Br J Psychiatry, 2015-12) Jordans, Mark JD; Kohrt, Brandon A; Luitel, Nagendra P; Komproe, Ivan H; Lund, Crick
    BACKGROUND: Accurate detection of persons in need of mental healthcare is crucial to reduce the treatment gap between psychiatric burden and service use in low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries. AIMS: To evaluate the accuracy of a community-based proactive case-finding strategy (Community Informant Detection Tool, CIDT), involving pictorial vignettes, designed to initiate pathways for mental health treatment in primary care settings. METHOD: Community informants using the CIDT identified screen positive (n = 110) and negative persons (n = 85). Participants were then administered the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). RESULTS: The CIDT has a positive predictive value of 0.64 (0.68 for adults only) and a negative predictive value of 0.93 (0.91 for adults only). CONCLUSIONS: The CIDT has promising detection properties for psychiatric caseness. Further research should investigate its potential to increase demand for, and access to, mental health services.
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    Detection of depression in low resource settings: validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and cultural concepts of distress in Nepal.
    (BMC Psychiatry, 2016-03-08) Kohrt, Brandon A; Luitel, Nagendra P; Acharya, Prakash; Jordans, Mark JD
    BACKGROUND: Despite recognition of the burden of disease due to mood disorders in low- and middle-income countries, there is a lack of consensus on best practices for detecting depression. Self-report screening tools, such as the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), require modification for low literacy populations and to assure cultural and clinical validity. An alternative approach is to employ idioms of distress that are locally salient, but these are not synonymous with psychiatric categories. Therefore, our objectives were to evaluate the validity of the PHQ-9, assess the added value of using idioms of distress, and develop an algorithm for depression detection in primary care. METHODS: We conducted a transcultural translation of the PHQ-9 in Nepal using qualitative methods to achieve semantic, content, technical, and criterion equivalence. Researchers administered the Nepali PHQ-9 to randomly selected patients in a rural primary health care center. Trained psychosocial counselors administered a validated Nepali depression module of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) to validate the Nepali PHQ-9. Patients were also assessed for local idioms of distress including heart-mind problems (Nepali, manko samasya). RESULTS: Among 125 primary care patients, 17 (14 %) were positive for a major depressive episode in the prior 2 weeks based on CIDI administration. With a Nepali PHQ-9 cutoff ≥ 10: sensitivity = 0.94, specificity = 0.80, positive predictive value (PPV) =0.42, negative predictive value (NPV) =0.99, positive likelihood ratio = 4.62, and negative likelihood ratio = 0.07. For heart-mind problems: sensitivity = 0.94, specificity = 0.27, PPV = 0.17, NPV = 0.97. With an algorithm comprising two screening questions (1. presence of heart-mind problems and 2. function impairment due to heart-mind problems) to determine who should receive the full PHQ-9, the number of patients requiring administration of the PHQ-9 could be reduced by 50 %, PHQ-9 false positives would be reduced by 18 %, and 88 % of patients with depression would be correctly identified. CONCLUSION: Combining idioms of distress with a transculturally-translated depression screener increases efficiency and maintains accuracy for high levels of detection. The algorithm reduces the time needed for primary healthcare staff to verbally administer the tool for patients with limited literacy. The burden of false positives is comparable to rates in high-income countries and is a limitation for universal primary care screening.
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    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.
    (The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2019-01-25) Jordans, Mark JD; Luitel, Nagendra P; Garman, Emily; Kohrt, Brandon A; Rathod, Sujit D; Shrestha, Pragya; Komproe, Ivan H; Lund, Crick; Patel, Vikram
    BACKGROUND:Evidence 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). METHOD:Two 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. RESULTS:Participants 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). CONCLUSION:Adding 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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    Four principles of mental health research and psychosocial intervention for child soldiers: lessons learned in Nepal.
    (International psychiatry : bulletin of the Board of International Affairs of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2010-07) Kohrt, Brandon A; Jordans, Mark JD; Morley, Christopher A
    Child soldiers represent a challenging population for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), as we have little evidence regarding their needs or the efficacy of interventions. Despite an increasing breadth of MHPSS interventions for children affected by war, very few are supported by evidence (Jordans et al, 2009). In a recent decade-long conflict, Maoists and the government of Nepal conscripted thousands of children to serve as soldiers, sentries, spies, cooks and porters. After the war ended in 2006, we began a project incorporating research into the development of interventions for former child soldiers. Through this work, conducted with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal, we identified four key principles to guide research and intervention with child soldiers (Fig. 1). We present these principles as location-and context-specific examples of the growing effort to develop guidelines and recommendations for research and intervention in acute post-conflict settings (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007; Allden et al, 2009).
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    Reducing stigma among healthcare providers to improve mental health services (RESHAPE): protocol for a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial of a stigma reduction intervention for training primary healthcare workers in Nepal.
    (Pilot Feasibility Stud, 2018) Kohrt, Brandon A; Jordans, Mark JD; Turner, Elizabeth L; Sikkema, Kathleen J; Luitel, Nagendra P; Rai, Sauharda; Singla, Daisy R; Lamichhane, Jagannath; Lund, Crick; Patel, Vikram
    Background: Non-specialist healthcare providers, including primary and community healthcare workers, in low- and middle-income countries can effectively treat mental illness. However, scaling-up mental health services within existing health systems has been limited by barriers such as stigma against people with mental illness. Therefore, interventions are needed to address attitudes and behaviors among non-specialists. Aimed at addressing this gap,REducingStigma amongHealthcAreProviders to ImprovEmental health services (RESHAPE) is an intervention in which social contact with mental health service users is added to training for non-specialist healthcare workers integrating mental health services into primary healthcare. Methods: This protocol describes a mixed methods pilot and feasibility study in primary care centers in Chitwan, Nepal. The qualitative component will include key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The quantitative component consists of a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial (c-RCT), which will establish parameters for a future effectiveness study of RESHAPE compared to training as usual (TAU). Primary healthcare facilities (the cluster unit,k = 34) will be randomized to TAU or RESHAPE. The direct beneficiaries of the intervention are the primary healthcare workers in the facilities (n = 150); indirect beneficiaries are their patients (n = 100). The TAU condition is existing mental health training and supervision for primary healthcare workers delivered through the Programme for Improving Mental healthcarE (PRIME) implementing the mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). The primary objective is to evaluate acceptability and feasibility through qualitative interviews with primary healthcare workers, trainers, and mental health service users. The secondary objective is to collect quantitative information on health worker outcomes including mental health stigma (Social Distance Scale), clinical knowledge (mhGAP), clinical competency (ENhancing Assessment of Common Therapeutic factors, ENACT), and implicit attitudes (Implicit Association Test, IAT), and patient outcomes including stigma-related barriers to care, daily functioning, and symptoms. Discussion: The pilot and feasibility study will contribute to refining recommendations for implementation of mhGAP and other mental health services in primary healthcare settings in low-resource health systems. The pilot c-RCT findings will inform an effectiveness trial of RESHAPE to advance the evidence-base for optimal approaches to training and supervision for non-specialist providers. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT02793271.
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    The ecocultural context and child behavior problems: A qualitative analysis in rural Nepal.
    (Soc Sci Med, 2016-06) Burkey, Matthew D; Ghimire, Lajina; Adhikari, Ramesh Prasad; Wissow, Lawrence S; Jordans, Mark JD; Kohrt, Brandon A
    Commonly used paradigms for studying child psychopathology emphasize individual-level factors and often neglect the role of context in shaping risk and protective factors among children, families, and communities. To address this gap, we evaluated influences of ecocultural contextual factors on definitions, development of, and responses to child behavior problems and examined how contextual knowledge can inform culturally responsive interventions. We drew on Super and Harkness' "developmental niche" framework to evaluate the influences of physical and social settings, childcare customs and practices, and parental ethnotheories on the definitions, development of, and responses to child behavior problems in a community in rural Nepal. Data were collected between February and October 2014 through in-depth interviews with a purposive sampling strategy targeting parents (N = 10), teachers (N = 6), and community leaders (N = 8) familiar with child-rearing. Results were supplemented by focus group discussions with children (N = 9) and teachers (N = 8), pile-sort interviews with mothers (N = 8) of school-aged children, and direct observations in homes, schools, and community spaces. Behavior problems were largely defined in light of parents' socialization goals and role expectations for children. Certain physical settings and times were seen to carry greater risk for problematic behavior when children were unsupervised. Parents and other adults attempted to mitigate behavior problems by supervising them and their social interactions, providing for their physical needs, educating them, and through a shared verbal reminding strategy (samjhaune). The findings of our study illustrate the transactional nature of behavior problem development that involves context-specific goals, roles, and concerns that are likely to affect adults' interpretations and responses to children's behavior. Ultimately, employing a developmental niche framework will elucidate setting-specific risk and protective factors for culturally compelling intervention strategies.