They found that people who received the digital tool were much less depressed after the treatment than the people who only received usual care. The group of researchers also found important and statistically significant effects on anxiety, impaired functioning, post-traumatic stress and well-being. Most effects persisted at 3 months after the treatment. The results are publisched in Plos Medicine.
VU-professor Cuijpers: “Depression is a major public health problem and depression rates in people who are forcibly displaced are even higher. However, effective treatment of depression is hardly available for displaced people. Therefore, digital mental health treatments may be a scalable solution for displaced people suffering from depression. The guided WHO Step-by-Step treatment we examined should be made available to communities of displaced people that have digital access.”
Displaced people and mental disorders
Most displaced people with mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries do not receive effective care and their access to care has deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic. During war, people often face multiple threats to life, loss of family, sexual and physical abuse, and lack of shelter or nutrition. After fleeing for safety, displaced people experience continuing difficulties, including unmet basic needs, language barriers, uncertainty about the future, social isolation and discrimination. Cuijpers: “As a result, they are at risk of mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. It has been estimated that 22% of displaced, war-affected Syrians in Lebanon suffer from moderate to severe depressive symptoms.”
82 million displaced people
In 2022 an estimated 82 million people were forcibly displaced due to war, conflict or persecution, including 21 million refugees. The greatest contemporary crisis related to displaced people has been caused by the war in Syria, involving almost six million refugees. Lebanon, with a total population of close to 7 million, currently hosts about 1.5 million displaced Syrians. Concurrently, Lebanon faces multiple other emergencies, including a collapsing economy, severe political turmoil, an explosion of neglected ammonium nitrate destroying large parts of the capital Beirut, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Syrian refugees less depressed after using digital treatment WHO
27 June 2022
An international group of researchers, led by professor Pim Cuijpers (Clinical Psychology) from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) tested a digital tool for reducing depression in displaced people from Syria who live in Lebanon, based on a treatment for depression that was developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).