To assess the effect of food insecurity on perinatal depression in rural Ethiopia.

We used a prospective cohort in which food insecurity was considered as primary exposure and perinatal depression as an outcome. Food insecurity at baseline (in the period of 8–24 weeks of pregnancy) was measured using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), and perinatal depression at follow-up (in 32–36 weeks of pregnancy) was measured using a Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). We used multivariable regression to assess the effect of food insecurity on the prevalence of perinatal depression. We explored food insecurity’s direct and indirect impacts on perinatal depression using structural equation modelling (SEM).

This paper used data from the Butajira Nutrition, Mental Health and Pregnancy (BUNMAP) cohort established under the Butajira Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (BHDSS).

Seven hundred and fifty-five pregnant women.

Among the study participants, 50 % were food-insecure, and about one-third were depressed at 32–36 follow-up. In SEM, higher values of baseline food insecurity, depressive symptoms and state–trait anxiety (STA) were positively and significantly associated with perinatal depression. The direct impact of food insecurity on perinatal depression accounts for 42 % of the total effect, and the rest accounted for the indirect effect through baseline depression (42 %) and STA (16 %).

The significant effect of food insecurity at baseline on perinatal depression and the indirect effect of baseline food insecurity through baseline anxiety and depression in the current study implies the importance of tailored interventions for pregnant women that consider food insecurity and psychosocial problems.

Cross-sectional studies show that the prevalence of comorbid depression in people with tuberculosis (TB) is high. The hypothesis that TB may lead to depression has not been well studied. Our objectives were to determine the incidence and predictors of probable depression in a prospective cohort of people with TB in primary care settings in Ethiopia.

We assessed 648 people with newly diagnosed TB for probable depression using Patient Health Questionnaire, nine-item (PHQ-9) at the time of starting their anti-TB medication. We defined PHQ-9 scores 10 and above as probable depression. Participants without baseline probable depression were assessed at 2 and 6 months to measure incidence of depression. Incidence rates per 1000-person months were calculated. Predictors of incident depression were identified using Poisson regression.

Two hundred and ninety-nine (46.1%) of the participants did not have probable depression at baseline. Twenty-two (7.4%) and 26 (8.7%) developed depression at 2 and 6 months of follow up. The incidence rate of depression between baseline and 2 months was 73.6 (95% CI 42.8–104.3) and between baseline and 6 months was 24.2 (95% CI 14.9–33.5) per 1000 person-months respectively. Female sex (adjusted β = 0.22; 95% CI 0.16–0.27) was a risk factor and perceived social support (adjusted β = −0.14; 95% CI −0.24 to −0.03) was a protective factor for depression onset.

There was high incidence of probable depression in people undergoing treatment for newly diagnosed TB. The persistence and incidence of depression beyond 6 months need to be studied. TB treatment guidelines should have mental health component.

There have been no studies from low- or middle-income countries to investigate the long-term impact of perinatal common mental disorders (CMD) on child educational outcomes.

To test the hypothesis that exposure to antenatal and postnatal maternal CMD would be associated independently with adverse child educational outcomes in a rural Ethiopian.

A population-based birth cohort was established in 2005/2006. Inclusion criteria were: age between 15 and 49 years, ability to speak Amharic, in the third trimester of pregnancy and resident of the health demographic surveillance site. One antenatal and nine postnatal maternal CMD assessments were conducted using a self-reporting questionnaire, validated for the local use. Child educational outcomes were obtained from the mother at T1 (2013/2014 academic year; mean age 8.5 years) and from school records at T2 (2014/2015 academic year; mean age 9.3 years).

Antenatal CMD (risk ratio (RR) = 1.06, 95% CI 1.05–1.07) and postnatal CMD (RR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.06–1.09) were significantly associated with child absenteeism at T2. Exposure to repeatedly high maternal CMD scores in the preschool period was not associated with absenteeism after adjusting for antenatal and postnatal CMD. Non-enrolment at T1 (odds ratio 0.75, 95% CI 0.62–0.92) was significantly but inversely associated with postnatal maternal CMD. There was no association between maternal CMD and child academic achievement or drop-out.

Our findings support the hypothesis of a critical period for exposure to maternal CMD for adverse child outcomes and indicate that programmes to enhance regular school attendance in low-income countries need to address perinatal maternal CMD.

None.

The Emerald project's focus is on how to strengthen mental health systems in six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda). This was done by generating evidence and capacity to enhance health system performance in delivering mental healthcare.

A common problem in scaling-up interventions and strengthening mental health programmes in LMICs is how to transfer research evidence, such as the data collected in the Emerald project, into practice.

To describe how core elements of Emerald were implemented and aligned with the ultimate goal of strengthening mental health systems, as well as their short-term impact on practices, policies and programmes in the six partner countries.

We focused on the involvement of policy planners, managers, patients and carers.

Over 5 years of collaboration, the Emerald consortium has provided evidence and tools for the improvement of mental healthcare in the six LMICs involved in the project. We found that the knowledge transfer efforts had an impact on mental health service delivery and policy planning at the sites and countries involved in the project.

This approach may be valid beyond the mental health context, and may be effective for any initiative that aims at implementing evidence-based health policies for health system strengthening.

Strengthening of mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) requires the involvement of appropriately skilled and committed individuals from a range of stakeholder groups. Currently, few evidence-based capacity-building activities and materials are available to enable and sustain comprehensive improvements.

Within the Emerald project, the goal of this study was to evaluate capacity-building activities for three target groups: (a) service users with mental health conditions and their caregivers; (b) policymakers and planners; and (c) mental health researchers.

We developed and tailored three short courses (between 1 and 5 days long). We then implemented and evaluated these short courses on 24 different occasions. We assessed satisfaction among 527 course participants as well as pre–post changes in knowledge in six LMICs (Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda). Changes in research capacity of partner Emerald institutions was also assessed through monitoring of academic outputs of participating researchers and students and via anonymous surveys.

Short courses were associated with high levels of satisfaction and led to improvements in knowledge across target groups. In relation to institutional capacity building, all partner institutions reported improvements in research capacity for most aspects of mental health system strengthening and global mental health, and many of these positive changes were attributed to the Emerald programme. In terms of outputs, eight PhD students submitted a total of 10 papers relating to their PhD work (range 0–4) and were involved in 14 grant applications, of which 43% (n = 6) were successful.

The Emerald project has shown that building capacity of key stakeholders in mental health system strengthening is possible. However, the starting point and appropriate strategies for this may vary across different countries, depending on the local context, needs and resources.

S.E.L. received consulting fees from Lundbeck.

Current coverage of mental healthcare in low- and middle-income countries is very limited, not only in terms of access to services but also in terms of financial protection of individuals in need of care and treatment.

To identify the challenges, opportunities and strategies for more equitable and sustainable mental health financing in six sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries, namely Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.

In the context of a mental health systems research project (Emerald), a multi-methods approach was implemented consisting of three steps: a quantitative and narrative assessment of each country's disease burden profile, health system and macro-fiscal situation; in-depth interviews with expert stakeholders; and a policy analysis of sustainable financing options.

Key challenges identified for sustainable mental health financing include the low level of funding accorded to mental health services, widespread inequalities in access and poverty, although opportunities exist in the form of new political interest in mental health and ongoing reforms to national insurance schemes. Inclusion of mental health within planned or nascent national health insurance schemes was identified as a key strategy for moving towards more equitable and sustainable mental health financing in all six countries.

Including mental health in ongoing national health insurance reforms represent the most important strategic opportunity in the six participating countries to secure enhanced service provision and financial protection for individuals and households affected by mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities.

D.C. is a staff member of the World Health Organization.

There is a large treatment gap for mental, neurological or substance use (MNS) disorders. The ‘Emerging mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)’ (Emerald) research programme attempted to identify strategies to work towards reducing this gap through the strengthening of mental health systems.

To provide a set of proposed recommendations for mental health system strengthening in LMICs.

The Emerald programme was implemented in six LMICs in Africa and Asia (Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda) over a 5-year period (2012–2017), and aimed to improve mental health outcomes in the six countries by building capacity and generating evidence to enhance health system strengthening.

The proposed recommendations align closely with the World Health Organization's key health system strengthening ‘building blocks’ of governance, financing, human resource development, service provision and information systems; knowledge transfer is included as an additional cross-cutting component. Specific recommendations are made in the paper for each of these building blocks based on the body of data that were collected and analysed during Emerald.

These recommendations are relevant not only to the six countries in which their evidential basis was generated, but to other LMICs as well; they may also be generalisable to other non-communicable diseases beyond MNS disorders.

None.

Little is known about the household economic costs associated with mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) disorders in low- and middle-income countries.

To assess the association between MNS disorders and household education, consumption, production, assets and financial coping strategies in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.

We conducted an exploratory cross-sectional household survey in one district in each country, comparing the economic circumstances of households with an MNS disorder (alcohol-use disorder, depression, epilepsy or psychosis) (n = 2339) and control households (n = 1982).

Despite some heterogeneity between MNS disorder groups and countries, households with a member with an MNS disorder had generally lower levels of adult education; lower housing standards, total household income, effective income and non-health consumption; less asset-based wealth; higher healthcare expenditure; and greater use of deleterious financial coping strategies.

Households living with a member who has an MNS disorder constitute an economically vulnerable group who are susceptible to chronic poverty and intergenerational poverty transmission.

D.C. is a staff member of the World Health Organization. The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this publication and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of the World Health Organization.

Developing evidence for the implementation and scaling up of mental healthcare in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) like Ethiopia is an urgent priority.

To outline a mental healthcare plan (MHCP), as a scalable template for the implementation of mental healthcare in rural Ethiopia.

A mixed methods approach was used to develop the MHCP for the three levels of the district health system (community, health facility and healthcare organisation).

The community packages were community case detection, community reintegration and community inclusion. The facility packages included capacity building, decision support and staff well-being. Organisational packages were programme management, supervision and sustainability.

The MHCP focused on improving demand and access at the community level, inclusive care at the facility level and sustainability at the organisation level. The MHCP represented an essential framework for the provision of integrated care and may be a useful template for similar LMIC.

Evidence on mortality in severe mental illness (SMI) comes primarily from clinical samples in high-income countries.

To describe mortality in people with SMI among a population cohort from a low-income country.

We followed-up 919 adults (from 68 378 screened) with SMI over 10 years. Standardised mortality ratios (SMR) and years of life lost (YLL) as a result of premature mortality were calculated.

In total 121 patients (13.2%) died. The overall SMR was twice that of the general population; higher for men and people with schizophrenia. Patients died about three decades prematurely, mainly from infectious causes (49.6%). Suicide, accidents and homicide were also common causes of death.

Mortality is an important adverse outcome of SMI irrespective of setting. Addressing common natural and unnatural causes of mortality are urgent priorities. Premature death and mortality related to self-harm should be considered in the estimation of the global burden of disease for SMI.

Traditional perinatal practices may protect against postnatal common mental disorders (CMD) in non-Western societies.

To evaluate the association between perinatal practices and postnatal CMD in rural Ethiopia.

A population-based sample of 1065 women was followed up from pregnancy until 2 months postpartum. Qualitative investigation informed the development of scales measuring attitudes towards and adherence to perinatal practices. Postnatal CMD was measured using the Self-Reporting Questionnaire.

Endorsement of sociocultural perinatal practices was associated with lower odds of antenatal CMD persisting into the postnatal period (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.66, 95% CI 0.45–0.95). Women who endorsed protective and celebratory perinatal practices but were unable to complete them had increased odds of incident (adjusted OR = 7.26, 95% CI 1.38–38.04) and persistent postnatal CMD (adjusted OR = 2.16, 95% CI 1.11–4.23) respectively.

There is evidence for an independent role of sociocultural practices in maintaining perinatal mental health in this Ethiopian community.

The outcome and impact of major depression in developing countries are not clear.

To describe the outcome of major depression and compare the disability and patterns of service use among different outcome groups.

In a case cohort study, nested within a population-based survey of 68 000 participants using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), 300 participants were randomly selected from those with current major depression and 300 from those with no lifetime history. Participants were re-interviewed after 18–62 months to ascertain current diagnosis, psychological symptoms, disability and use of health services.

Of participants with major depression at baseline 26% also met criteria for major depression at follow up. Mortality ratio standardised for age and gender was 3.55 (95% CI 1.97 to 6.39). All indices of measure of disability were significantly higher in the persistently depressed group compared with the completely recovered group. Participants who had recovered partially resembled participants with persistent depression. Two-thirds of those with persistent depression had not sought any help.

Major depression was associated with mortality and disability Those with residual symptoms remained disabled. Help-seeking was unusual.