Evidence-Based Guidelines for Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Summary of WHO Recommendations

Abstract

Why Evidence-Based Guidelines Are Urgently Needed Mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders are highly prevalent and are responsible for 14% of the global burden of disease expressed in disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) The resources that have been provided in countries to tackle the huge burden are insufficient, inequitably distributed, and inefficiently used, which results in a large majority of people with these disorders receiving no care at all [2-7]. Even when available, treatment and care often is neither evidence-based nor of high quality. The result is a large treatment gap, with more than 75% in many low-and middleincome countries (LAMIC).