Reporting Cultural Adaptation in Psychological Trials - The RECAPT criteria.

Background: There is a lack of empirical evidence on the level of cultural adaptation required for psychological interventions developed in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies to be effective for the treatment of common mental disorders among culturally and ethnically diverse groups. This lack of evidence is partly due to insufficient documentation of cultural adaptation in psychological trials. Standardised documentation is needed in order to enhance empirical and meta-analytic evidence.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of an E-Mental Health Intervention for People Living in Lebanon: Protocol for Two Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: The lack of availability of evidence-based services for people exposed to adversity globally has led to the development of psychological interventions with features that will likely make them more scalable. The evidence for the efficacy of e-mental health from high-income countries is compelling, and the use of these interventions could be a way to increase the coverage of evidence-based psychological interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Step-by-Step is a brief (5-session) intervention proposed by the World Health Organization as an innovative approach to reducing the suffering and disability associated with depression.

Improving mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in humanitarian settings: reflections on research funded through R2HC.

Major knowledge gaps remain concerning the most effective ways to address mental health and psychosocial needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises. The Research for Health in Humanitarian Crisis (R2HC) program aims to strengthen humanitarian health practice and policy through research. As a significant portion of R2HC's research has focused on mental health and psychosocial support interventions, the program has been interested in strengthening a community of practice in this field.

The Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence Conversational Agents in Health Care: Systematic Review.

Background: The high demand for health care services and the growing capability of artificial intelligence have led to the development of conversational agents designed to support a variety of health-related activities, including behavior change, treatment support, health monitoring, training, triage, and screening support. Automation of these tasks could free clinicians to focus on more complex work and increase the accessibility to health care services for the public. An overarching assessment of the acceptability, usability, and effectiveness of these agents in health care is needed to collate the evidence so that future development can target areas for improvement and potential for sustainable adoption.

Step-by-Step, an E-Mental Health Intervention for Depression: A Mixed Methods Pilot Study From Lebanon.

Background: E-mental health is an established mode of delivering treatment for common mental disorders in many high income countries. However, evidence of its effectiveness in lower income countries is lacking. This mixed methods study presents lessons learned and preliminary data on the feasibility of a minimally guided e-mental health intervention in Lebanon.

Cultural Adaptation of a Scalable World Health Organization E-Mental Health Program for Overseas Filipino Workers.

Background: Electronic mental (e-mental) health interventions can address mental health needs of different populations. Cultural adaptation of these interventions is crucial to establish a better fit with the cultural group and to achieve better treatment outcomes.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the cultural adaptation of the World Health Organization's e-mental health program Step-by-Step for overseas Filipino workers.

User-Centered App Adaptation of a Low-Intensity E-Mental Health Intervention for Syrian Refugees.

The aim of this study is to describe the initial stages of the iterative and user-centered mobile mental health adaptation process of Step-by-Step (SbS), a modularized and originally web-based e-mental health intervention developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Given the great need for improving the responsiveness and accessibility of health systems in host countries, the EU-funded STRENGTHS consortium studies the adaptation, implementation and scaling-up of SbS for Syrian refugees in Germany, Sweden and Egypt. Using early prototyping, usability testing and identification of barriers to implementation, the study demonstrates a user-centered process of contextual adaptation to the needs and expectations of Syrian refugees.

Step-by-Step: a new WHO digital mental health intervention for depression.

The World Health Organization is developing a range of interventions, including technology supported interventions, to help address the mental health treatment gap, particularly in low and middle-income countries. One of these, Step-by-Step, is a guided, technology supported, intervention for depression. It provides psychoeducation and training in behavioural activation through an illustrated narrative with additional therapeutic techniques such as stress management (slow breathing), identifying strengths, positive self-talk, increasing social support and relapse prevention.

A qualitative evaluation of a brief multicomponent intervention provided by lay health workers for women affected by adversity in urban Kenya.

Background: Problem Management Plus (PM+) is a brief multicomponent intervention incorporating behavioral strategies delivered by lay health workers. The effectiveness of PM+ has been evaluated in randomized controlled trials in Kenya and Pakistan. When developing interventions for large-scale implementation it is considered essential to evaluate their feasibility and acceptability in addition to their efficacy.

Effectiveness of a brief behavioural intervention on psychological distress among women with a history of gender-based violence in urban Kenya: A randomised clinical trial.

Background: Gender-based violence (GBV) represents a major cause of psychological morbidity worldwide, and particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although there are effective treatments for common mental disorders associated with GBV, they typically require lengthy treatment programs that may limit scaling up in LMICs. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of a new 5-session behavioural treatment called Problem Management Plus (PM+) that lay community workers can be taught to deliver.

Cultural Adaptation of Minimally Guided Interventions for Common Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Cultural adaptation of mental health care interventions is key, particularly when there is little or no therapist interaction. There is little published information on the methods of adaptation of bibliotherapy and e-mental health interventions.

Objective: To systematically search for evidence of the effectiveness of minimally guided interventions for the treatment of common mental disorders among culturally diverse people with common mental disorders; to analyze the extent and effects of cultural adaptation of minimally guided interventions for the treatment of common mental disorders.