Cognitive Behavioral Therapy among Ghana’s Rural Poor

We study the impact of group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for individuals selected from the general population of poor households in rural Ghana (N = 7,227). Results from one to three months after the program show strong impacts on mental and perceived physical health, cognitive and socioemotional skills, and economic self-perceptions. These effects hold regardless of baseline mental distress. We argue that this is because CBT can improve well-being for a general population of poor individuals through two pathways: reducing vulnerability to deteriorating mental health and directly increasing cognitive capacity and socioemotional skills.

That is by Nathan Barker, Gharad Bryan, Dean Karlan, Angela Ofori-Atta and Christopher Udry, here is the AER Insights link.  Here are other versions.