Nagendra Luitel, PhD

Nagendra Luitel, MA, MPhil, PhD, is a global mental health researcher from Nepal. He holds a PhD in the integration of mental health services into primary and community healthcare systems from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Currently, he serves as a Research Advisor for Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at George Washington University in the USA. Dr. Luitel has been actively involved in mental health research since 2006 and has played a key role in the development of community-based mental health services and systems in Nepal.

Over the years, Dr. Luitel has co-led numerous multi-year and multi-country research projects focusing on assessing mental health problems and service needs, adapting and validating mental health instruments, and developing and evaluating community-based interventions to improve the utilization of mental health services. His recent studies have concentrated on addressing barriers to mental health care on both the demand and supply sides.

Dr. Luitel has overseen multiple Randomized Controlled Trials evaluating the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of community-based psychological interventions, including WHO Problem Management Plus (PM+), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) among adolescents, and the Thinking Healthy Program (THP) in Nepal. The results and best practices from Dr. Luitel's research programs have been widely utilized in policies, treatment protocols, guidelines, and training materials by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoH) in Nepal. Dr. Luitel has authored over 100 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals.