Challenges and opportunities in developing a psychological intervention for perinatal depression in rural Pakistan – a multi-method study
Open accessAbstract
Perinatal depression, due to its high prevalence and associations with disability, poor infant development and family disruption, is a major public health problem in developing countries. In non-literate and poor communities where depression is not recognised and where there are no specialists, developing a culturally acceptable, deliverable psychological intervention that community members find useful, presents special challenges but also opportunities. We describe lessons learned from a multi-method formative study to develop and deliver a psychological intervention to depressed mothers and their infants through non-specialist village based health workers.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The structured CBT approach has been successfully adapted for use by CHWs to address mental health concerns in perinatal populations in rural Pakistan, showing effective use of CHWs to deliver such interventions in a Muslim population.
“It has been successfully adapted for use by CHWs to address mental health concerns in perinatal populations in rural Pakistan 23,24 , showing the effective use of CHWs to deliver such interventions in a Muslim population 23,28 .”
From Addressing Behavioral Health Disparities for Somali Immigrants Through Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Led by Community Health Workers (2017) · cites this paper as [23]
The Results (Development of the Thinking Healthy Programme; page unavailable) describe adapting CBT for local health workers to use with perinatal women in rural Pakistan. The Discussion reports favourable feedback from mothers and health workers, but says definitive evidence of efficacy required a randomized trial that was still underway. The paper therefore supports adaptation and promising delivery, not established effectiveness. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredWhen CBT is delivered by community health workers, it offers great potential to increase access to psychological support in resource-poor settings.
“The use of CBT in face-to-face or computerized settings, individually or in groups, has been well established 21,22 , and when delivered by community health workers (CHWs) offers great potential to increase access to psychological support in resource-poor settings 23,24 .”
From Addressing Behavioral Health Disparities for Somali Immigrants Through Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Led by Community Health Workers (2017) · cites this paper as [23]
Studies from similar settings in Pakistan have found lack of awareness of mental illnesses and stigma of depression as barriers to receiving help.
“Studies from similar settings in Pakistan have found lack of awareness of mental illnesses and stigma of depression as barriers to receiving help [39].”
From Barefoot therapists: barriers and facilitators to delivering maternal mental health care through peer volunteers in Pakistan: a qualitative study (2016) · cites this paper as [39]
The THP addressed the barrier of lack of awareness and stigma by promoting the intervention as targeting mother and child health rather than maternal depression.
“The THP addressed this barrier by promoting the intervention as targeting mother and child health rather than maternal depression [39]”
From Barefoot therapists: barriers and facilitators to delivering maternal mental health care through peer volunteers in Pakistan: a qualitative study (2016) · cites this paper as [39]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 32 · Cited by 201
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Rahman A Maternal depression and child health: The need for holistic health policies in developing countries Harvard Health Policy Review 2005 6 70 80
- Authors
- Rahman, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Rahman, A.
- ORCID
- Rahman, A.
- Venue
- Archives of Women's Mental Health
- Published
- 2007-08-06
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 211-219
- ISSN
- 1434-1816 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-1102
- PMC
- PMC2424205
- OpenAlex
- W2123330591
- Cited by
- 201
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Archives of Women s Mental Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (071548)
- University of Manchester
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare
- Keywords
- perinatal depression, psychological intervention, rural Pakistan, non-specialist health workers, village health workers, mothers and infants, formative research, intervention development, maternal mental health
- MeSH terms
- Attitude to Health, Community Health Workers, Culture, Developing Countries, Education, Female, Humans, Mother-Child Relations, Pakistan, Rural Population, Self Concept, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Depression, Postpartum
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
