AJPH’s Improving Population Mental Health in the 21st Century Call for Papers

November 2, 2017

The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) will devote a Special Section on the theme of improving population mental health in the 21st century.

Psychiatric and behavioral disorders, and their underlying mental health dimensions, remain among the most disabling health conditions worldwide with significant burdens on individuals and societies. Population based efforts to prevent disorders from occurring, identify those with disorder, and provide accessible and effective treatments, should be important global health priorities.

AJPH invites submissions of innovative research that uses rigorous epidemiological methods, ranging from experimental to quasi-experimental and observational studies, to identify appropriate levers for prevention and efficacious treatments applicable in both wealthy and/or resourcepoor settings.

Reports that focus on evaluation of policies and legal changes that stand to either improve or exacerbate mental health conditions, targeted and global service delivery models, and technological advances that hold promise for prevention at a population level, are particularly welcome and timely.

Areas for the special section can include, but are not limited to:

• Analyses that inform descriptive epidemiology regarding the changing prevalence of population distributions of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders
• Applications of causal inference approaches
• Examination of challenges in implementation and program evaluation
• How local, state, and national policy and legal changes (e.g., Affordable Care Act in the US, shifting marijuana laws across the globe, immigration and migration policies worldwide) influence mental health incidence, persistence, prevention, and treatment.

The special section plans to publish 5-6 empirical papers, as well as a series of invited editorials, on topics related to population mental health. 

Abstracts should be sent to AJPH.MentalHealth@mcgill.ca and are due by January 2, 2018.

Learn more on the call for papers flyer from AJPH.org