Paul Bolton's main areas of expertise are program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. His work treats all four elements as part of an integrated whole in which applied research methods play a core role. He uses this approach to conduct needs assessments and to plan and evaluate programs with service providers including major NGOs. This work has encompassed programs dealing with physical health (including infectious diseases) and more recently psychosocial problems in North America, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean. Much of this work has been with refugees and internally displaced persons during the disaster post-emergency phase, persons affected by violence, and other adults and children living in difficult circumstances. Dr. Bolton has also conducted program evaluations of psychosocial interventions in Africa and Asia in the form of randomized clinical trials.

Bass J, Bolton P, Murray L. ‘Do not forget culture when studying mental health.’ Lancet 2007;370:918-919. (invited comment).

Betancourt T, Speelman L, Onyango G, Bolton P. ‘A Qualitative Study of Mental Health Problems among Children Displaced by War in Northern Uganda.’ Journal of Transcultural Psychiatry (in press).

Murray LK, Semrau K, McCurley E, Thea D, Scott N, Mwiya M, Kankasa C, Bass J, Bolton P. Barriers to Acceptance and Adherence of Antiretroviral Therapy in urban Zambian Women: A qualitative study. AIDS Care. Accepted for Publication.

Bolton P, Bass J, Murray L, Lee K,Weiss W, McDonnell SM: Expanding the scope of humanitarian program evaluation. Prehospital Disast Med 2007;22(5):390–395.

Bolton P, Bass J, Betancourt T, Speelman L, Neugebauer R, Murray L, Onyango G, Clougherty K, Verdeli H. ‘Interventions for Depressions Symptoms Among Adolescent Survivors of War and Displacement in Northern Uganda: A Randomized Controlled Trial.’ JAMA 2007;298(5):519 -527. (Lead article).

Laura K. Murray, Alan Haworth, Katherine Semrau, Grace M. Aldrovandi, Mini Singh, Moses Sinkala, Donald M. Thea, Paul Bolton. ‘Violence and Abuse among HIV-Infected Women and their Children in Zambia: A Qualitative Study.’ Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 2006;194(8):608-615.

Judith Bass, Richard Neugebauer, Kathleen. F. Clougherty, Helen Verdeli, Priya Wickramaratne, Lincoln Ndogoni, Liesbeth Speelman, Myrna Weissman, Paul Bolton. ‘Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression in Rural Uganda: 6-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.’ The British Journal of Psychiatry 2006:188:567-573.

Bolton P, Tang A. ‘Using Ethnographic Methods in the Selection of Post Disaster Mental Health Interventions.’ Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. 2004;19(1):97-101.

Bolton P, Wilk C. ‘Depression and functional disability among an HIV-affected population in rural Uganda.’ Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2004;39(6):442-7.

Bolton P, Betancourt T. ‘Mental Health in Post-War Afghanistan’ (Editorial). JAMA. 2004;292:626-628.

Vikram Patel, Ricardo Araya, Paul Bolton. ‘Treating Depression in the Developing World’ (Editorial). Tropical Medicine and International Health. 2004;9(5):539-541.

Bolton P, Wilk C. ‘How do Africans view the impact of HIV? A report from a Ugandan community.’ AIDS Care. 2004;16(1):123-8.

Verdeli H, Clougherty K, Bolton P, Speelman L, Ndogoni L, Bass J, Weissman M. ‘Adaptation of Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT-G) for a Developing Country: Experience in Uganda.’ World Psychiatry. 2003;2(2):114-120.

Bolton P, Bass J, Neugebauer R, Clougherty K, Verdeli H, Ndogoni L, Wickramaratne P, Weissman M. ‘Results of a Clinical Trial of a Group Intervention for Depression in Rural Uganda.’ JAMA. 2003;289:3117-3124.

Bolton P, Tang A. ‘An alternative approach to cross-cultural function assessment.’ Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2002;37(11):537-543.

Bolton P. Neugebauer R. Ndogoni L. ‘Prevalence of depression in rural Rwanda based on symptom and functional criteria.’ J Nerv Ment Dis. 2002;190(9):631-637.

Wilk C, Bolton P. ‘Local perceptions of the mental health effects of the Uganda acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic.’ J Nerv Ment Dis. 2002;190(6):394-397.

Bolton P, Weiss W. ‘Communicating across cultures: improving translation to improve complex emergency program effectiveness.’ Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. 2002;16(4):252-6.

Bolton P. ‘Local perceptions of the mental health effects of the Rwandan genocide.’

J Nerv Ment Dis. 2001;189(4):243-8.

Bolton P. ‘Cross-cultural validity and reliability testing of a standard psychiatric assessment instrument without a gold standard.’ J Nerv Ment Dis. 2001;189(4):238-42.

Sheik M, Gutierrez M, Bolton P, Spiegel P, Thieren M, Burnham G. ‘Deaths among humanitarian workers.’ BMJ. 2000;321:166-8.