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Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review

BACKGROUND: Globally, adolescents are vulnerable to mental health problems, particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) due to impoverished living conditions and a higher prevalence of chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS in the region. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this risk. Th...

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Autores principales: Mabrouk, Adam, Mbithi, Gideon, Chongwo, Esther, Too, Ezra, Sarki, Ahmed, Namuguzi, Mary, Atukwatse, Joseph, Ssewanyana, Derrick, Abubakar, Amina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9429610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36061286
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.937723
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author Mabrouk, Adam
Mbithi, Gideon
Chongwo, Esther
Too, Ezra
Sarki, Ahmed
Namuguzi, Mary
Atukwatse, Joseph
Ssewanyana, Derrick
Abubakar, Amina
author_facet Mabrouk, Adam
Mbithi, Gideon
Chongwo, Esther
Too, Ezra
Sarki, Ahmed
Namuguzi, Mary
Atukwatse, Joseph
Ssewanyana, Derrick
Abubakar, Amina
author_sort Mabrouk, Adam
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Globally, adolescents are vulnerable to mental health problems, particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) due to impoverished living conditions and a higher prevalence of chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS in the region. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this risk. This calls for an urgent need for evidence-based adolescent mental health interventions to reduce the risk and burden of mental health problems in SSA. The review aims to identify and characterize existing adolescent mental health interventions in SSA, as well as to evaluate their implementation strategies and effectiveness. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, African Index Medicus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and CINAHL databases for relevant articles. Furthermore, we searched gray literature databases, including Think Tank search, open gray, NGO search engine, and IGO search engine for additional relevant articles. The scoping review was conducted to identify original research articles on mental health interventions among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa published from database inception to 31 December 2021. We carried out a narrative synthesis to report our findings. RESULTS: Our literature search generated 4,750 studies, of which 1,141 were duplicates, 3,545 were excluded after screening, and 64 articles met the inclusion criteria. The 64 studies describe a total of 57 unique mental health interventions comprising 40,072 adolescents. The nature of these interventions was diverse, encompassing various implementation strategies such as economic-based, family strengthening, psychoeducation, interpersonal psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and resilience training, among others. Most of the interventions were selective interventions that targeted adolescents at high risk of developing mental health problems including adolescents living with HIV, war-affected adolescents, orphans, adolescents from poorer backgrounds, and survivors of sexual violence. Half of the interventions were delivered by lay persons. Sixty-two of the eligible studies examined the effectiveness of the mental health interventions, of which 55 of them reported a positive significant impact on various mental health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The review findings show that there exist several diverse interventions that promote mental health among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. These interventions can be implemented in diverse settings including schools, communities, health facilities, and camps, and can be delivered by lay persons.
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spelling pubmed-94296102022-09-01 Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review Mabrouk, Adam Mbithi, Gideon Chongwo, Esther Too, Ezra Sarki, Ahmed Namuguzi, Mary Atukwatse, Joseph Ssewanyana, Derrick Abubakar, Amina Front Psychiatry Psychiatry BACKGROUND: Globally, adolescents are vulnerable to mental health problems, particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) due to impoverished living conditions and a higher prevalence of chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS in the region. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this risk. This calls for an urgent need for evidence-based adolescent mental health interventions to reduce the risk and burden of mental health problems in SSA. The review aims to identify and characterize existing adolescent mental health interventions in SSA, as well as to evaluate their implementation strategies and effectiveness. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, African Index Medicus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and CINAHL databases for relevant articles. Furthermore, we searched gray literature databases, including Think Tank search, open gray, NGO search engine, and IGO search engine for additional relevant articles. The scoping review was conducted to identify original research articles on mental health interventions among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa published from database inception to 31 December 2021. We carried out a narrative synthesis to report our findings. RESULTS: Our literature search generated 4,750 studies, of which 1,141 were duplicates, 3,545 were excluded after screening, and 64 articles met the inclusion criteria. The 64 studies describe a total of 57 unique mental health interventions comprising 40,072 adolescents. The nature of these interventions was diverse, encompassing various implementation strategies such as economic-based, family strengthening, psychoeducation, interpersonal psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and resilience training, among others. Most of the interventions were selective interventions that targeted adolescents at high risk of developing mental health problems including adolescents living with HIV, war-affected adolescents, orphans, adolescents from poorer backgrounds, and survivors of sexual violence. Half of the interventions were delivered by lay persons. Sixty-two of the eligible studies examined the effectiveness of the mental health interventions, of which 55 of them reported a positive significant impact on various mental health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The review findings show that there exist several diverse interventions that promote mental health among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. These interventions can be implemented in diverse settings including schools, communities, health facilities, and camps, and can be delivered by lay persons. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9429610/ /pubmed/36061286 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.937723 Text en Copyright © 2022 Mabrouk, Mbithi, Chongwo, Too, Sarki, Namuguzi, Atukwatse, Ssewanyana and Abubakar. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Mabrouk, Adam
Mbithi, Gideon
Chongwo, Esther
Too, Ezra
Sarki, Ahmed
Namuguzi, Mary
Atukwatse, Joseph
Ssewanyana, Derrick
Abubakar, Amina
Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review
title Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review
title_full Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review
title_fullStr Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review
title_full_unstemmed Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review
title_short Mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review
title_sort mental health interventions for adolescents in sub-saharan africa: a scoping review
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9429610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36061286
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.937723
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