Prevalence of mental disorders in South Asia: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Abstract

Objectives: Mental disorders are highly prevalent in eight South Asian countries, yet there is a gap of a synthesized overview of the prevalence of mental disorders in this region. This umbrella review aims to summarize the prevalence of mental disorders from systematic reviews and metaanalyses of South Asian studies. Materials and methods: A systematic search of 11 major databases and additional sources was conducted until December 11, 2019. Articles were included if they were systematic reviews or meta-analyses, reported the prevalence of mental disorders, and reported primary studies conducted in South Asian countries only. Results: Among 2591 citations, a total of 23 reviews met all the criteria of this umbrella review. The synthesized findings from those reviews suggest high prevalence rates for mental disorders, including depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, suicidal behavior and selfharm, schizophrenia, substance use disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, dementia, and other mental health problems. Also, findings suggest a high burden of maternal depression, psychiatric comorbidities in chronic physical illnesses, and various mental disorders among children, elderly adults, refugees, and other vulnerable populations. Most studies were from India whereas evidence from Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Maldives was limited. Conclusion: The findings of this review are constrained with heterogeneity in prevalence estimations, methodologies, sampling issues, and limitations in the existing literature, which should be addressed in future research. The evidence synthesized in this review provides national and regional overview of the prevalence of mental disorders, which may inform better policymaking and practice advancing mental health in South Asia.

Mental health outcomes of quarantine and isolation for infection prevention: A systematic umbrella review of the global evidence

“…In this umbrella review, studies receiving 0-4, 5-7, and 8-10 points were categorized as low-quality, medium-quality, and high-quality studies, respectively. The scoring and categorizing processes in this review were informed by earlier umbrella reviews [26,27,39].…”

“…Since 2015, many umbrella reviews have been conducted to evaluate the evidence base on the psychosocial epidemiology of mental health in diverse populations [22][23][24][25][26][27]. Although several reviews have reported psychological impacts of quarantine or isolation [28,29], no umbrella review or overview of the reviews was found, although such a review could provide valuable information on the mental health implications of quarantine and isolation within the global landscape.…”

Mental health outcomes of quarantine and isolation for infection prevention: A systematic umbrella review of the global evidence

“…Since 2015, many umbrella reviews have been conducted evaluating the evidence base on the psychosocial epidemiology of mental health in diverse populations [19][20][21][22][23][24]. However, no umbrella review or review of the reviews was found, which can inform the mental health implications of quarantine and isolation for infection prevention at the global landscape.…”

Prevalence and correlates of loneliness in India: A systematic review

“…In addition, South Asian countries including India have a high prevalence of mental disorders (Hossain et al, 2020b), where loneliness may impose further psychosocial burden among the affected individuals. Loneliness should be studied in the context of other mental disorders, especially among vulnerable individuals who have multiple coexisting mental disorders (Hossain et al, 2020a).…”