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Reducing the treatment gap for mental, neurological, and substance use disorders

November 15th, 2011

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."

More information:
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

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