Susan Meffert, MD, MPH
Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

Dr. Meffert and her team are international leaders in the field of mental health implementation science with particular expertise for designing integrated, evidence-based mental health services for diverse medical populations. Dr. Meffert has been invited to present her team's work at the World Health Organization (WHO, an agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health), the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH, the largest funder of research on mental disorders), the World Bank and United States Agency for International Development (USAID, one of the largest aid agencies in the world).

In Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), Dr. Meffert and her team created the Global Partnership to Enhance Mental Health Care (GEM), a UCSF program in East Africa that researches strategies to deliver evidence-based mental health care with locally available workers. Through GEM, Dr. Meffert has received over $10 million in research funding from the United States Institutes of Health (NIH) and other entities, published more than 30 articles, given numerous International and Grand Round presentations and received honors and other recognition for her team’s advancement of the field.

• Global Mental Health Research: Time to Integrate Basic Science.
  International journal of mental health and addiction 2021 Meffert SM
• Interpersonal psychotherapy delivered by nonspecialists for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder among Kenyan HIV-positive women affected by gender-based violence: Randomized controlled trial.
  PLoS medicine 2021 Meffert SM, Neylan TC, McCulloch CE, Blum K, Cohen CR, Bukusi EA, Verdeli H, Markowitz JC, Kahn JG, Bukusi D, Thirumurthy H, Rota G, Rota R, Oketch G, Opiyo E, Ongeri L
• Lessons from Research Innovations in Depression and HIV in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
  2020 Rebecca Jopling, Joyce P. Yang, Susan Meffert, Monika Müller, Primrose C. Nyamayaro, Melanie Abas
• Implementation research for public sector mental health care scale-up (SMART-DAPPER): a sequential multiple, assignment randomized trial (SMART) of non-specialist-delivered psychotherapy and/or medication for major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (DAPPER) integrated with outpatient care clinics at a county hospital in Kenya.
  BMC psychiatry 2019 Levy R, Mathai M, Chatterjee P, Ongeri L, Njuguna S, Onyango D, Akena D, Rota G, Otieno A, Neylan TC, Lukwata H, Kahn JG, Cohen CR, Bukusi D, Aarons GA, Burger R, Blum K, Nahum-Shani I, McCulloch CE, …
• A cross-sectional mixed methods protocol to describe correlates and explanations for a long duration of untreated psychosis among patients with first episode psychosis in Uganda.
  BMJ open 2019 Mwesiga EK, Nakasujja N, Ongeri L, Semeere A, Loewy R, Meffert S
• East African HIV care: depression and HIV outcomes.
  Global mental health (Cambridge, England) 2019 Meffert SM, Neylan TC, McCulloch CE, Maganga L, Adamu Y, Kiweewa F, Maswai J, Owuoth J, Polyak CS, Ake JA, Valcour VG
• Lessons from Research Innovations in Depression and HIV in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
  2019 Rebecca Jopling, Joyce P. Yang, Susan Meffert, Monika Müller, Primrose C. Nyamayaro, Melanie Abas
• Chronic lung disease in adult recurrent tuberculosis survivors in Zimbabwe: a cohort study.
  The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2019 Chin AT, Rylance J, Makumbirofa S, Meffert S, Vu T, Clayton J, Mason P, Woodruff P, Metcalfe J
• Lessons from Research Innovations in Depression and HIV in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
  Innovations in Global Mental Health 2019 Jopling, Rebecca & Yang, Joyce & Meffert, Susan & Muller, Monika & Nyamayaro, Primrose & Abas, Melanie.
• Suicidality and associated risk factors in outpatients attending a general medical facility in rural Kenya.
  Journal of affective disorders 2017 Ongeri L, McCulloch CE, Neylan TC, Bukusi E, Macfarlane SB, Othieno C, Ngugi AK, Meffert SM
• Brief Report: Sexual Violence Against HIV-Positive Women in the Nyanza Region of Kenya: Is Condom Negotiation an Instigator?
  Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 2017 Onu CC, Dworkin SL, Ongeri LG, Oyaro P, Neylan TC, Cohen CR, Bukusi EA, Rota G, Meffert SM
• Collaborative Interpersonal Psychotherapy for HIV-Positive Women in Kenya: A Case Study From the Mental Health, HIV and Domestic Violence (MIND) Study.
  Journal of clinical psychology 2016 Opiyo E, Ongeri L, Rota G, Verdeli H, Neylan T, Meffert S
• Health impact of human rights testimony: harming the most vulnerable?
  BMJ global health 2016 Meffert SM, Shome S, Neylan TC, Musalo K, Fineberg HV, Cooke MM, Volberding PA, Goosby EP
• Novel implementation research designs for scaling up global mental health care: overcoming translational challenges to address the world's leading cause of disability.
  International journal of mental health systems 2016 Meffert SM, Neylan TC, Chambers DA, Verdeli H
• Interpersonal psychotherapy for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder among HIV-positive women in Kisumu, Kenya: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
  Trials 2016 Onu C, Ongeri L, Bukusi E, Cohen CR, Neylan TC, Oyaro P, Rota G, Otewa F, Delucchi KL, Meffert SM
• Increase of perceived frequency of neighborhood domestic violence is associated with increase of women's depression symptoms in a nationally representative longitudinal study in South Africa.
  Social science & medicine (1982) 2015 Meffert SM, McCulloch CE, Neylan TC, Gandhi M, Lund C
• HIV, violence and women: unmet mental health care needs.
  Journal of affective disorders 2014 Zunner B, Dworkin SL, Neylan TC, Bukusi EA, Oyaro P, Cohen CR, Abwok M, Meffert SM
• Interpersonal psychotherapy versus treatment as usual for PTSD and depression among Sichuan earthquake survivors: a randomized clinical trial.
  Conflict and health 2014 Jiang RF, Tong HQ, Delucchi KL, Neylan TC, Shi Q, Meffert SM
• Prospective study of police officer spouse/partners: a new pathway to secondary trauma and relationship violence?
  PloS one 2014 Meffert SM, Henn-Haase C, Metzler TJ, Qian M, Best S, Hirschfeld A, McCaslin S, Inslicht S, Neylan TC, Marmar CR
• A pilot randomized controlled trial of interpersonal psychotherapy for Sudanese refugees in Cairo, Egypt.
  Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy 2014 Susan M. Meffert, Akram Osman Abdo, Omayma Ahmed Abd Alla, Yasir Omer Mustafa Elmakki, Afrah Abdelrahim Omer, Sahar Yousif, Thomas J. Metzler, Charles R. Marmar
• Global mental health intervention research and mass trauma.
  Open Access Journal of Clinical Trials 2013 Susan Meffert, Ekblad
• Feelings of betrayal by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and emotionally distressed Sudanese refugees in Cairo.
  Medicine, conflict, and survival 2010 Meffert SM, Musalo K, Abdo AO, Alla OA, Elmakki YO, Omer AA, Yousif S, Metzler TJ, Marmar CR
• The role of mental health professionals in political asylum processing.
  The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 2010 Meffert SM, Musalo K, McNiel DE, Binder RL
• Expansion of Liberty Interests Under Parole Conditions: Beyond Antipsychotics
  Journal of Psychiatry and the Law 2009 Meffert, SM & Chamberlain, J
• Darfur refugees in Cairo: mental health and interpersonal conflict in the aftermath of genocide.
  Journal of interpersonal violence 2008 Meffert SM, Marmar CR
• A prospective study of trait anger and PTSD symptoms in police.
  Journal of traumatic stress 2008 Meffert SM, Metzler TJ, Henn-Haase C, McCaslin S, Inslicht S, Chemtob C, Neylan T, Marmar CR
• Revenge Fantasies.
  Encyclopedia of Stress 2007 M. Horowitz, S. Meffert