Prevalence of depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorders

Summary: Prevalence of depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among out-migrant labour in Madi, Chitwan

Labour out-migration from low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to high-income countries (HCs) has become one of the important household livelihood strategies in recent decades. Thus, understanding the consequences of massive out-migration for sending communities has become one of the high-priority research and policy agenda and has drawn great attention from both the academia and policy arena. As a result, a large body of literature has documented important economic consequences of labor out-migration for the communities and families at their place of origin. Another stream of research focused on migrants’ physical health and refers to migrants as “harbingers of disease”. Moreover, physical separation from their family, community, and social networks, and exposure to the new social environment along with long working hours, harsh working, and poor living conditions generally result in highly stressful daily life. Previous research has documented a strong association between stress and mental health. Despite the fact that migration is highly stressful that has important psychological consequences, little attention has been given to the investigation of the relationship between migration experience and mental health in Nepal. This study aims to fill this important gap in the literature. More specially, by employing mixed methods data collection strategy, this study aims to answer three specific research question: 1) to what extent migrants and non-migrants differ in prevalence of three the most common mental health disorders – Major depressive disorder, General anxiety disorder, and alcohol use disorders; 2) to what extent migrants and non-migrants differ in treatment-seeking behavior; and 3) identify the challenges and barriers of mental health services use.