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Between July and July , we carried out a randomized controlled trial of the Youth Readiness Intervention — a cognitive—behavioural intervention for war-affected young people who exhibit depressive and anxiety symptoms and conduct problems — in Freetown, Sierra Leone. We used a burden assessment scale to evaluate the burden of care placed on caregivers in terms of emotional distress and functional impairment. Difference-in-differences multiple regression analyses were used, within an intention-to-treat framework, to estimate the treatment effects.
Compared with the caregivers of participants of the control group, the caregivers of participants of the intervention group reported greater reductions in emotional distress scale difference: 0. A psychotherapeutic intervention for war-affected young people can improve the mental health of their caregivers. Although, globally, psychiatric disorders account for a larger disease burden than human immunodeficiency virus and malaria combined, 1 more than three-quarters of individuals living in low- and middle-income countries who have such disorders receive no clinical treatment.
There have been few attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions among young people affected by war but such interventions appear to have a favourable impact on depressive symptoms 8 and post-traumatic stress reactions.
