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Article History

Received: 10 February 2025

Accepted: 10 July 2025

First Online: 21 October 2025

Declarations

:

: The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. Ethics approval of the study, which included informed consent processes and a distress policy, was obtained from the Pakistan National Bio-ethics Committee (NBC) (Ref: No.4–87/NBC-513/20/324). Written informed consent was sought from all the participants in this study. Assent was obtained from those less than 18 years of age.

: Not Applicable.

: NH has been a past Trustee of the Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning (PILL), Abaseen Foundation UK, Lancashire Mind UK, and Manchester Global Foundation (MGF). He is an executive member of the Academic Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, and a NIHR Senior Investigator. He has attended educational events organised by various pharmaceutical industries.NC is the CEO of the Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning. She is an Associate Director of the Global Mental Health and Cultural Psychiatry Research Group, Head of Psychological Medicine at the Remedial Centre Hospital, Consultant Psychiatrist at South City Hospital, Consultant for Manchester Global Foundation and Professor of Psychiatry, Dow University of Health Sciences. NC has received travel grants from Lundbeck and Pfizer pharmaceutical companies to attend one national and one international academic meeting and conference in the last three years. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.