Stockton, Melissa AnnMazinyo, Ernesha WebbMlanjeni, LungelwaNogemane, KwandaNgcelwane, NondumisoSweetland, Annika C.Basaraba, Cale NeilBezuidenhout, CharlSansbury, GriffinLovero, Kathryn L.Olivier, DavidGrobler, ChristoffelWall, Melanie M.Medina‑Marino, AndrewNobatyi, PhumzaWainberg, Milton L.2024-03-202024-03-202024Stockton, M.A., Mazinyo, E.W., Mlanjeni, L. et al. 2024, 'Validation of a brief screener for broad-spectrum mental and substance-use disorders in South Africa', Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, vol. 11, art e4, pp. 1-9, doi : 10.1017/gmh.2023.89.2054-4251 (online)10.1017/gmh.2023.89http://hdl.handle.net/2263/95294DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The de-identified data may be made available upon reasonable request.In low-resource settings, valid mental health screening tools for non-specialists can be used to identify patients with psychiatric disorders in need of critical mental health care. The Mental Wellness Tool-13 (mwTool-13) is a 13-item screener for identifying adults at risk for common mental disorders (CMDs) alcohol-use disorders (AUDs), substance-use disorders (SUD), severe mental disorders (SMDs), and suicide risk (SR). The mwTool-13 is administered in two steps, specifically, only those who endorse any of the initial three questions receive the remaining ten questions. We evaluated the performance of mwTool-13 in South Africa against a diagnostic gold standard. We recruited a targeted, gender-balanced sample of adults, aged ≥18 years at primary and tertiary healthcare facilities in Eastern Cape Province. Of the 1885 participants, the prevalence of CMD, AUD, SMD, SR, and SUD was 24.4%, 9.5%, 8.1%, 6.0%, and 1.6%, respectively. The mwTool-13 yielded high sensitivities for CMD, SMD, and SR, but sub-optimal sensitivities for AUD and SUD (56.7% and 64.5%, respectively). Including a single AUD question in the initial question set improved the tool’s performance in identifying AUD and SUD (sensitivity > 70%), while maintaining brevity, face-validity, and simplicity in the South African setting.en© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence.Common mental disorder (CMD)Alcohol-use disorder (AUD)Substance-use disorder (SUD)Suicide riskSevere mental disorder (SMD)Cross-culturalPrimary carePsychometric evaluationAssessment toolsDeveloping countriesSDG-03: Good health and well-beingArticle