# Scaling-Up Stepped Care for Women's Mental Health in Primary Care in an LMIC

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2020 · $641,059

## Abstract

This new R01 application responds to PAR-18-835 by advancing task sharing in testing the
effectiveness and implementation of a stepped care model for LMICs. It uses nurses and
mental health peers to treat depression and potential co-occurring anxiety among women in
primary care. To improve implementation, this study examines the impact of clinic
implementation teams in readying the clinics and service providers. The proposed project is
located in Tajikistan, where the investigators have conducted NIH funded research since 2009.
It builds upon and extends Dr. Weine’s R01, K24, and D43 research on migration and health
and mental health, and especially his recent Global Brain R21 research which successfully
adapted and tested stepped care for feasibility. Aim 1 assesses the effectiveness of the
stepped care model with 420 women who have depression and potential co-occurring anxiety,
recruited from 12 primary care clinics in Tajikistan, compared with standard of care plus
provision of healthy lifestyle materials, with another 210 women recruited from 6 primary care
clinics, including assessing mediators and moderators (e.g. executive control efficiency, trauma
exposure). Aim 2 assesses whether a clinic implementation team moderates women’s reduction
in depression post-intervention, as well as clinic-level (leadership support and degree of
implementation) and provider-level (motivation and fidelity) moderators. Aim 3 establishes a
national mental health research network that focuses on improving the standard of mental
health care and access to services by building mental health implementation research capacity.
The knowledge produced through this study will inform stepped care models for mental health in
LMICs such as Tajikistan and in low-resource settings in the United States.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10001626
- **Project number:** 5R01MH120660-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Mahbat Bahromov
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $641,059
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10001626

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10001626, Scaling-Up Stepped Care for Women's Mental Health in Primary Care in an LMIC (5R01MH120660-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10001626. Licensed CC0.

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