Trend of Iran's mental health research over three decades

To describe the trends in research articles in the field of mental health. The articles that we reviewed belonged to the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. We limited the search to the literature published over the 30-year period from 1973 to 2002. The following types of data were extracted: areas of research, specific topics, study design, location for data collection, funding sources, and the different types of working relationship among the authors. Analysis of publication trends in 3031 articles showed a marked increase in the total number of publications with time, especially over the last 5 years. As for different research areas, we detected a growing proportion of articles in the field of neuroscience and a decline in articles dealing with mental health. The volume of research in the fields of psychology, epidemiology and clinical sciences remained relatively constant. There was a rise in the proportion of cross-sectional studies and clinical trials in the second half of the 30-year period. It is important to find the reasons and implications for the waning interest in mental health. Our results could provide an empirical basis in policy making and strategic planning for research in this area