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Growing evidence suggests that specially designed psychotherapies effectively treat a broad group of mood and anxiety syndromes (“transdiagnostic” psychotherapies), avoiding the need to deliver different therapies for different disorders. This randomized, controlled study compares such a transdiagnostic approach, delivered by trained lay health workers with no prior mental health experience, with enhanced usual care in 346 primary-care patients with anxiety, mood, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (age range, 18–60) in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Intervention patients received five 90-minute sessions focused on problem solving, behavioral activation, social support building, and stress management. Usual care emphasized medications and supportive co…