Performance of Distress Thermometer: A Study among Cancer Patients.

Background: The Distress Thermometer accompanied with Problems List is a commonly used screening tool for psychosocial distress. However, it's cut-off score, performance and risk factors for psychosocial distress varies among studies. This is the first study conducted in Nepal to investigate the Distress Thermometer's screening properties, its optimal cut-off score and evaluating the prevalence of psychosocial distress and its risk factors.

Traditional and biomedical care pathways for mental well-being in rural Nepal.

Background: There is increasing access to mental health services in biomedical settings (e.g., primary care and specialty clinics) in low- and middle-income countries.

Reassessing the Mental Health Treatment Gap: What Happens if We Include the Impact of Traditional Healing on Mental Illness?

In this Fresh Focus, we reassess what the mental health treatment gap may mean if we consider the role of traditional healing. Based on systematic reviews, patients can use traditional healers and qualitatively report improvement from general psychological distress and symptom reduction for common mental disorders. Given these clinical implications, some high-income countries have scaled up research into traditional healing practices, while at the same time in low-and middle-income countries, where the use of traditional healers is nearly ubiquitous, considerably less research funding has studied or capitalized on this phenomena.

Traditional Healers and Mental Health in Nepal: A Scoping Review.

Despite extensive ethnographic and qualitative research on traditional healers in Nepal, the role of traditional healers in relation to mental health has not been synthesized. We focused on the following clinically based research question, "What are the processes by which Nepali traditional healers address mental well-being?" We adopted a scoping review methodology to maximize the available literature base and conducted a modified thematic analysis rooted in grounded theory, ethnography, and phenomenology. We searched five databases using terms related to traditional healers and mental health.