Problem Management plus and Alcohol (PM+A): A New Intervention to Address Alcohol Misuse and Psychological Distress among Conflict-Affected Populations

Problem Management+ (PM+) is a transdiagnostic intervention and addresses symptoms across multiple common mental disorders. It does not yet include strategies to reduce alcohol misuse which is a considerable problem among conflict-affected men, and part of the co-morbidity spectrum. In this commentary, we describe the need to address symptoms of common mental disorders and alcohol misuse among conflict-affected populations. We introduce the CHANGE project (Alcohol use in humanitarian settings: A programme of work to address alcohol use and associated adversities among conflict-affected populations in Uganda and Ukraine) which tries to fill the evidence gap in intervention research, and seeks to complement PM+ with components addressing alcohol misuse. The principal output of the CHANGE project will be a new intervention manual called PM+A which will be made available in an open access format.