Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:16:18.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Mental health research in the Arab world: an update

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Elie G. Karam
Affiliation:
Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Medical Institute for Neuropsychological Disorders (MIND), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, St George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon, email egkaram@idraac.org
Lynn A. Itani
Affiliation:
Institute for Development Research Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Publications on mental health were collected using PubMed and PsychINFO for 21 Arab countries. The data were then categorised according to the first author's country of affiliation, the year of publication, the topic of research and the type of journal. In 2006–12, the Arab world published 1029 articles (an average of 147 per year). The estimated increase in yearly productivity during this period was about 25% over the 7 preceding years. When considering the research output per million population, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon were the top three producers, as they had been over the preceding four decades. After adjusting for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the five top producers were Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco. Based on child and adolescent mental health research only, the Arab world's productivity was around one-sixth that of the United States and Europe.

Type
Research papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015

References

Albayrak, O., Föcker, M., Wibker, K., et al (2012) Bibliometric assessment of publication output of child and adolescent psychiatric/psychological affiliations between 2005 and 2010 based on the databases PubMed and Scopus. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 21, 327337.Google Scholar
Jaalouk, D., Okasha, A., Salamoun, M., et al (2012) Mental health research in the Arab world. Journal of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47, 1727–1131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saxena, A., Paraje, G., Sharpan, P., et al (2006) The 10/90 divide in mental health research: trends over a 10-year period. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188, 8182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sharan, P., Gallo, C., Gureje, O., et al (2009) Mental health research priorities in low- and middle-income countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. British Journal of Psychiatry, 195, 354363.Google Scholar
United Nations (2010) World population prospects: the 2010 Revision Population Database. Population Division of the Department of Economic & Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. Available at http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/(accessed May 2012).Google Scholar
World Bank (2010a) Database on gross domestic product by country and year. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD (accessed June 2013).Google Scholar
World Bank (2010b) Database on gross domestic product per capita by country and year. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD (accessed June 2013).Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2008) The Global Burden of Disease: 2004 Update. WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.