Effectiveness of Group Focused Psychosocial Support for Adults Affected by Humanitarian Crises (GroupPM+)

Effectiveness of Group Focused Psychosocial Support to Improve the Psychosocial Well-being and Functioning of Adults Affected by Humanitarian Crisis in Nepal

This is an effectiveness study of group problem management plus, a low-intensity psychological intervention, delivered in five sessions to adults affected by humanitarian crises. The current study will evaluate the effectiveness of Group Problem Management Plus (PM+).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Depression; Psychological Distress; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Group problem management plus; Behavioral: Enhanced treatment as usual

Detailed Description

Counselling programmes used in many humanitarian settings are often non- specific with unknown efficacy and safety. Only a few interventions in humanitarian crises have been rigorously tested, and most studied interventions focused on posttraumatic stress disorder. Beyond posttraumatic stress disorder, individuals may have a range of problems including depression, anxiety, and not being able to do daily tasks necessary for survival and recovery. However, interventions are often limited since they tend to target only a single outcome, are usually of longer duration (8-16 sessions) or require professionals.

In low resourced settings interventions need to be short of duration, and be carried out by lay people in the communities to make them sustainable and feasible to implement on a broader scale. World Health Organization aims to develop a range of low-intensity scale-able psychological interventions that address these issues, as part of its mental health Gap Action Program. As a first step a simplified psychological intervention Problem Management Plus (PM+) has been developed. It has 4 core features that make the intervention suitable for low resourced setting exposed to adversities. First, it is brief intervention (5-sessions), delivered individually or in groups; second, it can be delivered by paraprofessionals (high school graduates with no mental health experience), using the principle of task shifting/ task sharing; third, it is designed as a trans- diagnostic intervention, addressing a range of client identified emotional (e.g. depression, anxiety, traumatic stress, general stress) and practical problems; fourth, it is designed for people in low-income country communities affected by any kind of adversity (e.g. violence, disasters), not just focusing on a single kind of adversity. Recent PM+ trails in Pakistan and Kenya have indicated PM+ to be effective in diminishing depression and anxiety and improving people's functioning and self- selected, culturally relevant outcomes. Group PM+ has been piloted in a district in Nepal, which was affected by the 2015 earthquakes. The pilot was conducted to gather information about the feasibility, safety and delivery of the intervention in the Nepali community settings; and to identify issues around training, supervision and outcomes measures. The pilot trial was successful in terms of acceptability and feasibility and detecting possible problems of compliance, delivery of the intervention, recruitment and retention. The current definitive study will evaluate the effectiveness of Group PM+ in Nepal through a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 611
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Nepal
  • Morang
    • Biratnagar, Morang, Nepal
      • Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. score YES to heart-mind problems on heart-mind screener
2. score >16 on World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Presence of a severe mental disorder (e.g., psychosis)
2. Alcohol use disorder (score >16 on the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Group problem management plus; Five sessions of group low intensity psychological intervention	Behavioral: Group problem management plus; Low intensity group psychological intervention including stress management, behavioral activation, problem solving, and strengthening social support
Active Comparator: Enhanced treatment as usual; Referral to primary health care workers trained in mental health Gap Action Programme.	Behavioral: Enhanced treatment as usual; Referral to primary care workers trained in mental health Gap Action Program Implementation Guide; Other Names: mental health Gap Action Program-Implementation Guide

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
General psychological distress - General Health Questionnaire	12-item measure of general psychological distress, validated in Nepal	20-weeks after baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Daily functioning - World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale	12-item assessment ability to engage in daily activities, previously used in numerous studies in Nepal	20-weeks after baseline
Depression - Patient Health Questionnaire	9-item measure of depression symptoms, culturally and clinically validated in Nepal	20-weeks after baseline
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist	8-tem measure of post-traumatic stress symptoms validated for use in Nepal	20-weeks after baseline
Cultural idiom of psychological distress - Heart-Mind Screener	2-item locally develop psychological distress screener	20-weeks after baseline
Perceptions of support from family, friends, and others - Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support	12-item assessment of perceptions of support from 3 sources: Family, Friends, and a Significant Other	20-weeks after baseline
Somatic symptom burden - Somatic Symptom Scale	8-item brief measure of somatic symptom burden	20-weeks after baseline

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Reducing Tension Checklist for Problem Management Plus Skills	10-item measure of behavioral and psychosocial skills related to coping mechanisms	20-weeks after baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: George Washington University
• Collaborators: King's College London; Duke University; World Health Organization; Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal
• Investigators: Study Director: Mark van Ommeren, PhD, World Health Organization

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Dawson KS, Bryant RA, Harper M, Kuowei Tay A, Rahman A, Schafer A, van Ommeren M. Problem Management Plus (PM+): a WHO transdiagnostic psychological intervention for common mental health problems. World Psychiatry. 2015 Oct;14(3):354-7. doi: 10.1002/wps.20255. No abstract available.
• Rahman A, Riaz N, Dawson KS, Usman Hamdani S, Chiumento A, Sijbrandij M, Minhas F, Bryant RA, Saeed K, van Ommeren M, Farooq S. Problem Management Plus (PM+): pilot trial of a WHO transdiagnostic psychological intervention in conflict-affected Pakistan. World Psychiatry. 2016 Jun;15(2):182-3. doi: 10.1002/wps.20312. No abstract available.
• Dawson KS, Schafer A, Anjuri D, Ndogoni L, Musyoki C, Sijbrandij M, van Ommeren M, Bryant RA. Feasibility trial of a scalable psychological intervention for women affected by urban adversity and gender-based violence in Nairobi. BMC Psychiatry. 2016 Nov 18;16(1):410. doi: 10.1186/s12888-016-1117-x.
• Bryant RA, Schafer A, Dawson KS, Anjuri D, Mulili C, Ndogoni L, Koyiet P, Sijbrandij M, Ulate J, Harper Shehadeh M, Hadzi-Pavlovic D, van Ommeren M. 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. PLoS Med. 2017 Aug 15;14(8):e1002371. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002371. eCollection 2017 Aug.
• Khan MN, Hamdani SU, Chiumento A, Dawson K, Bryant RA, Sijbrandij M, Nazir H, Akhtar P, Masood A, Wang D, Wang E, Uddin I, van Ommeren M, Rahman A. Evaluating feasibility and acceptability of a group WHO trans-diagnostic intervention for women with common mental disorders in rural Pakistan: a cluster randomised controlled feasibility trial. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019 Feb;28(1):77-87. doi: 10.1017/S2045796017000336. Epub 2017 Jul 10. Erratum In: Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019 Aug;28(4):466.
• Hamdani SU, Ahmed Z, Sijbrandij M, Nazir H, Masood A, Akhtar P, Amin H, Bryant RA, Dawson K, van Ommeren M, Rahman A, Minhas FA. Problem Management Plus (PM+) in the management of common mental disorders in a specialized mental healthcare facility in Pakistan; study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Int J Ment Health Syst. 2017 Jun 8;11:40. doi: 10.1186/s13033-017-0147-1. eCollection 2017. Erratum In: Int J Ment Health Syst. 2018 Sep 27;12:53.
• Chiumento A, Hamdani SU, Khan MN, Dawson K, Bryant RA, Sijbrandij M, Nazir H, Akhtar P, Masood A, Wang D, van Ommeren M, Rahman A. Evaluating effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a group psychological intervention using cognitive behavioural strategies for women with common mental disorders in conflict-affected rural Pakistan: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2017 Apr 26;18(1):190. doi: 10.1186/s13063-017-1905-8.
• Sijbrandij M, Bryant RA, Schafer A, Dawson KS, Anjuri D, Ndogoni L, Ulate J, Hamdani SU, van Ommeren M. Problem Management Plus (PM+) in the treatment of common mental disorders in women affected by gender-based violence and urban adversity in Kenya; study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Int J Ment Health Syst. 2016 May 31;10:44. doi: 10.1186/s13033-016-0075-5. eCollection 2016. Erratum In: Int J Ment Health Syst. 2018 Oct 12;12:55.
• Sijbrandij M, Farooq S, Bryant RA, Dawson K, Hamdani SU, Chiumento A, Minhas F, Saeed K, Rahman A, van Ommeren M. Problem Management Plus (PM+) for common mental disorders in a humanitarian setting in Pakistan; study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (RCT). BMC Psychiatry. 2015 Oct 1;15:232. doi: 10.1186/s12888-015-0602-y. Erratum In: BMC Psychiatry. 2018 Oct 15;18(1):331.
• Jordans MJD, Kohrt BA, Sangraula M, Turner EL, Wang X, Shrestha P, Ghimire R, Van't Hof E, Bryant RA, Dawson KS, Marahatta K, Luitel NP, van Ommeren M. Effectiveness of Group Problem Management Plus, a brief psychological intervention for adults affected by humanitarian disasters in Nepal: A cluster randomized controlled trial. PLoS Med. 2021 Jun 17;18(6):e1003621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003621. eCollection 2021 Jun.
• Van't Hof E, Sangraula M, Luitel NP, Turner EL, Marahatta K, van Ommeren M, Shrestha P, Bryant R, Kohrt BA, Jordans MJD. Effectiveness of Group Problem Management Plus (Group-PM+) for adults affected by humanitarian crises in Nepal: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2020 Apr 19;21(1):343. doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-04263-9.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 25, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): September 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 31, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 17, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): November 20, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 14, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 12, 2020
• Last Verified: October 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Psychological treatment; Nepal; Task shifting; Humanitarian crisis
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
• Other Study ID Numbers: ERC.0002817 Group PM+

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: This will be shared for full trial.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No