The Public Library of Science calls for “case studies that can help broaden our understanding of global mental health in ‘real-life’ contexts.” The series intends to “emphasize the importance of ‘practice-based evidence,’ by placing value on the experiences and impact of interventions in real-world settings as evidence for implementation.” The first two, “Stepped Care for Maternal Mental Health” and “Improving Access to Mental Health Care and Psychosocial Support within a Fragile Context: A Case Study from Afghanistan“, are published this week.
Providing counseling to pregnant women who are distressed — what a revolutionary idea.
Only .3% of the 6347 total population or 2.4% of those who received counseling went on to see a psychiatrist. One would hope some number of these were not put on medications.
These are much better statistics than in the US, where upwards of 2% of all pregnant women are on antidepressants http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/pregnancy_gateway/meds/data.html and 27% of pregnant women on Medicaid http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20360278
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