BackgroundThere is a large treatment gap for mental, neurological or substance use (MNS) disorders. The ‘Emerging mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)’ (Emerald) research programme attempted to identify strategies to work towards reducing this gap through the strengthening of mental health systems.AimsTo provide a set of proposed recommendations for mental health system strengthening in LMICs.MethodThe Emerald programme was implemented in six LMICs in Africa and Asia (Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda) over a 5-year period (2012–2017), and aimed to improve mental health outcomes in the six countries by building capacity and generating evidence to enhance health system strengthening.ResultsThe proposed recommendations align closely with the World Health Organization's key health system strengthening ‘building blocks’ of governance, financing, human resource development, service provision and information systems; knowledge transfer is included as an additional cross-cutting component. Specific recommendations are made in the paper for each of these building blocks based on the body of data that were collected and analysed during Emerald.ConclusionsThese recommendations are relevant not only to the six countries in which their evidential basis was generated, but to other LMICs as well; they may also be generalisable to other non-communicable diseases beyond MNS disorders.Declaration of interestNone.

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BackgroundCognitive reserve (CR) reflects the capacity of the brain to endure neuropathology, minimize clinical manifestations and successfully complete cognitive tasks. The present study aims to determine whether high CR may constitute a moderator of cognitive functioning in bipolar disorder (BD).MethodsOne hundred and two patients with BD and 32 healthy controls were enrolled. All patients met DSM-IV criteria for I or II BD and were euthymic (YMRS ≤ 6 and HDRS ≤ 8) during a 6-month period. All participants were tested with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, and a Cerebral Reserve Score (CRS) was estimated. Subjects with a CRS below the group median were classified as having low CR, whereas participants with a CRS above the median value were considered to have high CR.ResultsParticipants with BD with high CR displayed a better performance in measures of attention (digits forward: F = 4.554, P = 0.039); phonemic and semantic verbal fluency (FAS: F = 9.328, P = 0.004; and Animal Naming: F = 8.532, P = 0.006); and verbal memory (short cued recall of California Verbal Learning Test: F = 4.236, P = 0.046), after multivariable adjustment for potential confounders, including number of admissions and prior psychotic symptoms.ConclusionsHigh cognitive reserve may therefore be a valuable construct to explore for predicting neurocognitive performance in patients with BD regarding premorbid status.Disclosure of interestDr. I. Grande has received a Juan Rodés Contract (JR15/00012), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness, Barcelona, Spain and has served as a consultant for Ferrer and as a speaker for AstraZeneca, Ferrer and Janssen-Cilag.Disclosure of interestDr. I. Grande has received a Juan Rodés Contract (JR15/00012), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness, Barcelona, Spain and has served as a consultant for Ferrer and as a speaker for AstraZeneca, Ferrer and Janssen-Cilag.

This study demonstrates that there is a substantial prevalence of HIV infection in psychiatric patients admitted to an acute in-patient unit. History of injecting drug use was strongly associated with seropositivity. Clinicians recognised risk factors for HIV infection in the majority of the HIV-infected cases.

Background The Emerald project's focus is on how to strengthen mental health systems in six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda). This was done by generating evidence and capacity to enhance health system performance in delivering mental healthcare. A common problem in scaling-up interventions and strengthening mental health programmes in LMICs is how to transfer research evidence, such as the data collected in the Emerald project, into practice. Aims To describe how core elements of Emerald were implemented and aligned with the ultimate goal of strengthening mental health systems, as well as their short-term impact on practices, policies and programmes in the six partner countries. Method We focused on the involvement of policy planners, managers, patients and carers. Results Over 5 years of collaboration, the Emerald consortium has provided evidence and tools for the improvement of mental healthcare in the six LMICs involved in the project. We found that the knowledge transfer efforts had an impact on mental health service delivery and policy planning at the sites and countries involved in the project. Conclusions This approach may be valid beyond the mental health context, and may be effective for any initiative that aims at implementing evidence-based health policies for health system strengthening.

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