Melanie Amna Abas

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Melanie Amna Abas
Alma materUniversity of Auckland
University of Birmingham
Scientific career
InstitutionsInstitute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience
ThesisSocio-economic deprivation and length of psychiatric inpatient stay (2003)

Melanie Amna Abas is a British psychiatric epidemiologist who is Professor of Global Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She is a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, co-director of the NIHR Global Health Research Group African Youth in Mind, and leads the National Institutes of Health TENDAI Clinical Trial.

Early life and education[edit]

Amna Abas attended the University of Birmingham, where she studied medicine.[1] She moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for her graduate studies, earning a master's degree in epidemiology. Her doctoral research at the University of Auckland evaluated socio-economic deprivation and length of psychiatric inpatient stay.[2] Long stays in hospital are associated with a poor health outcome, and Amna Abas demonstrated that greater deprivation is associated with longer stays in hospital.[2]

Research and career[edit]

Amna Abas has dedicated her career to understanding depression amongst different demographic groups. Her early research explored the social causes of depression amongst Zimbabwean women.[3] She was the first to show how cross-cultural events could cause depression.[3] For example, she studied the effectiveness of the friendship bench mental health programme, and showed that co-morbid anxiety was a predictor of persistent depression.[4] She argued that the psychological treatments proposed for use in lower middle income country and resource-limited settings (e.g. problem solving and interpersonal therapy) do not target fear, avoidance and worry.[4][5] Amna Abas expanded her studies to other regions, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and Moldova.[citation needed]

At the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Amna Abas established a research group focused on scalable global mental health interventions.[6] It uses social science and cultural analysis to develop contextually appropriate interventions for low-income countries.[7] She has explored how behavioural interventions impact adherence with medical advice for conditions including HIV.[3][8][9][10]

Academic service[edit]

Amna Abas has focssed on capacity building amongst African researchers.[11] She has contributed to the US-African Medical Education Partnership Initiative, which provides training to early and mid-career researchers across Africa. She is the King's College London partner for the African Mental Health Research initiative.[8]

Selected publications[edit]

  • Mazeda Hossain; Cathy Zimmerman; Melanie Abas; Miriam Light; Charlotte Watts (21 October 2010). "The relationship of trauma to mental disorders among trafficked and sexually exploited girls and women". American Journal of Public Health. 100 (12): 2442–2449. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.173229. ISSN 1541-0048. PMC 2978168. PMID 20966379. Wikidata Q51832402.
  • Tom Reynolds; Graham Thornicroft; Melanie Abas; Bob Woods; Juanita Hoe; Morven Leese; Martin Orrell (1 May 2000). "Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE). Development, validity and reliability". British Journal of Psychiatry. 176: 444–452. doi:10.1192/BJP.176.5.444. ISSN 0007-1250. PMID 10912220. Wikidata Q44090156.
  • Melanie A. Abas; Barbara J. Sahakian; Raymond Levy (1 August 1990). "Neuropsychological deficits and CT scan changes in elderly depressives". Psychological Medicine. 20 (3, 03): 507-520, 507. doi:10.1017/S0033291700017025. ISSN 0033-2917. PMID 2236360. Wikidata Q48923530.

References[edit]

  1. ^ London, King's College (2022-01-24). "Melanie Amna Abas". King's College London. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  2. ^ a b Abas, Melanie Amna (2003). Socio-economic deprivation and length of psychiatric inpatient stay (MD--Psychiatry thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland.
  3. ^ a b c "Professor Melanie Abas". Centre for Global Mental Health. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  4. ^ a b Abas, Melanie Amna; Weiss, Helen Anne; Simms, Victoria; Verhey, Ruth; Rusakaniko, Simbarashe; Araya, Ricardo; Chibanda, Dixon (June 2020). "The effect of co-morbid anxiety on remission from depression for people participating in a randomised controlled trial of the Friendship Bench intervention in Zimbabwe". EClinicalMedicine. 23: 100333. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100333. ISSN 2589-5370. PMC 7329733. PMID 32637890.
  5. ^ "The TENDAI Study - Task shifting to treat depression and HIV medication nonadherence in low resource settings". Centre for Global Mental Health. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  6. ^ London, King's College. "Professor Melanie Abas receives £2.75m in UKRI funding". King's College London. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  7. ^ Abas, Melanie; Mangezi, Walter; Nyamayaro, Primrose; Jopling, Rebecca; Bere, Tarisai; McKetchnie, Samantha M.; Goldsmith, Kimberley; Fitch, Calvin; Saruchera, Emily; Muronzie, Thabani; Gudyanga, Denford; Barrett, Barbara M.; Chibanda, Dixon; Hakim, James; Safren, Steven A. (5 December 2022). "Task-sharing with lay counsellors to deliver a stepped care intervention to improve depression, antiretroviral therapy adherence and viral suppression in people living with HIV: a study protocol for the TENDAI randomised controlled trial". BMJ open. 12 (12): e057844. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057844. ISSN 2044-6055. PMC 9723911. PMID 36576191. Wikidata Q122871369.
  8. ^ a b "Melanie Abas | AME". academicmedicaleducation.com. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  9. ^ London, King's College. "The TENDAI Study". King's College London. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  10. ^ "Task Shifting to Treat Depression and HIV Medication Nonadherence in Low Resource Settings - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov". clinicaltrials.gov. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  11. ^ "Researcher capacity building: Supporting the career development of emerging research leaders in Africa". 2022.
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