StrongMinds: cost-effectiveness analysis
Updates
November 2024: Update to our analysis
We have made a substantial update to our psychotherapy report. This 83 page report (+ appendix) details new methods as well as an updated cost-effectiveness analysis of StrongMinds and Friendship Bench. We now estimate StrongMinds to create 40 WELLBYs per $1,000 donated (or 5.3 times more cost-effective than GiveDirectly cash transfers). We now estimate Friendship Bench to create 49 WELLBYs per $1,000 donated (or 6.4 times more cost-effective than GiveDirectly cash transfers).
See our changelog for previous updates.
Executive summary
This analysis estimates the effectiveness of StrongMinds’ core programme of group interpersonal therapy (g-IPT) by combining the evidence of g-IPT’s effectiveness with the broader evidence of lay-delivered psychotherapy in LMICs. We then expand our analysis to include StrongMinds’ other psychotherapy programmes. Finally, using StrongMinds’ average cost to treat an individual’s depression, we estimate the total effect a $1,000 donation to StrongMinds will have on depression. We then compare this to a $1,000 donation to GiveDirectly, an organisation which provides cash transfers. Outcomes are assessed in terms of standard deviation changes in measures of affective mental health disorders (MHa). Currently, we estimate that $1,000 donated to StrongMinds would improve MHa by 12 SDs (95% CI: 7.2, 20) and be about 12x (95% CI: 4, 24) more cost-effective than GiveDirectly.
Acknowledgements
We are immensely grateful to the staff of StrongMinds for answering our many questions related to the operations of StrongMinds. In addition, we thank all of the reviewers who made comments on previous drafts of this report. In particular, we thank Caspar Kaiser, Samantha Bernecker and Aidan Goth for their helpful feedback.