The World Health Organization recently released its 2023 diagnostic and treatment guide to mental, neurological, and substance use disorders.

Last updated in 2016, adopted in more than 100 countries worldwide, and translated into more than 20 languages, the 150-page document provides more guidance than earlier editions, with a new section on anxiety disorders and summarized evidence of what are currently most effective and least costly treatments.

The WHO considers mental, neurological, and substance use disorders “major contributors to morbidity and premature mortality in all regions of the world.” Yet treatment is poorly matched, with insufficient resources causing significant treatment gaps. In 2019, the latest edition found that mental, neurological, and substance use disorders were responsible for 10.1 percent of the global burden of disease as measured in disability-adjusted life-years and 25.1 percent of all years lived with disability.

Even more than their 2015 and 2016 counterparts, 2023 topic expert groups stressed the need to balance potential benefits against known and unknown harms, especially when there is low certainty of evidence. Also, driving their recommendations were factors such as cost-effectiveness, equity of approach, and overall feasibility in terms of costs and available resources, human and financial.

The expert groups mostly drew on quantitative evidence from Cochrane Reviews and, when not available, from other systematic reviews.

Among this year’s........

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