title: Psychological treatments for depression and anxiety disorders in low- and middle- income countries: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this meta-analysis was to determine the efficacy of psychological treatments for depression and anxiety disorders in low- and middle- income countries (LAMIC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on psychological treatment of depression and anxiety disorders in low-and middle income countries using an existing database (www.evidencebasedpsychotherapies.org), PubMed, Embase, Psychinfo, Dissertation Abstracts International and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched for studies published in all languages. Additional studies were identified from reference lists of found studies. Randomized controlled trials in which a psychological intervention for anxiety or depression was compared to a control condition (care-as-usual, waiting list, placebo, or another control group) were included. The randomized controlled trials needed to be conducted in a LAMI country (classification of LAMI countries according to the World Bank's list of economies) to be eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Psychological treatments were defined as interventions in which the core element of treatment consisted of verbal communication between a therapist and a patient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventeen studies met our inclusion criteria, with a total of 3,010 participants. The mean standardized difference between the treatment and control groups at post-test was 1.02 (95% CI: 0.76∼1.28) which corresponds well with the effects found in high-income countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that psychological treatments of depression and anxiety disorders are also effective in LAMI countries, and may encourage global dissemination of these interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa. edithvanhof@gmail.com
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van't Hof
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cuijpers
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Waheed
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Stein
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic