Global Study Identifies Top Mental Health Challenges

(National Institute of Drug Abuse)

A large-scale study conducted worldwide has identified the top global challenges in mental health. A report of the study appears in the current issue of the journal Nature (paid subscription required).

The Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health Initiative, led by the National Institutes of Health and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, identified the top 40 barriers to better mental health around the world. Similar to past grand challenges, which focused on infectious diseases and chronic, noncommunicable diseases, this initiative seeks to build a community of funders supporting research that improves the lives of people living with mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders within the next 10 years.

The study took 18 months to complete, having begun in early 2010. Pamela Collins of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) — part of NIH — and colleagues assembled an international panel of experts to identify research priorities using the Delphi method, a widely-used consensus-building tool. The panel consisted of 422 experts in fields such as neuroscience, basic behavioral science, mental health services, and epidemiology, and represented more than 60 countries.

Over two months, NIMH staff pared the panel’s initial list of 1,565 challenges down to 154, with input from a scientific advisory board. From this list, the expert panel selected the top 40, of which the top five challenges identified after the third and final round of ranking are:

– Integrate screening and core packages of services into routine primary health care

– Reduce the cost and improve the supply of effective medications

– Improve children’s access to evidence-based care by trained health providers in low- and middle-income countries

– Provide effective and affordable community-based care and rehabilitation

– Strengthen the mental health component in the training of all health care personnel.

These top five challenges were ranked according to the ability to reduce the burden of disease, ability to reduce inequalities in health and health care, length of time until results can be observed, and the ability for the topic to be researched effectively.

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