Quality care for people with severe mental disorders in low-resource settings

Abstract

Findings from efforts to address the treatment gap for mental health conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC) suggest that non-specialist health providers can deliver effective evidence-based care for people with common mental disorders.1 Severe mental disorders (SMD) are relatively less common, however, there is some evidence that parts of sub-Saharan Africa might have had one of the largest percentage increases in the prevalence of schizophrenia, the prototypical severe mental health condition, over the period 1990 to 2016.