Trend of Researches in the Field of Psychiatric Disorders in Iran

The purpose of this study was to provide a quantitative analysis of researches performed on psychiatric disorders in Iran, over a 30-year period. All scientific papers published from 1973 to 2002 in the field of psychiatric disorders were assessed to collect data regarding author's (authors') specifications, field of studies, research topics, methodologies, location of data collection, geographical span, financial supports, and collaboration status among the authors. Of the 3031 publications, 1171 (38.6%) were related to psy-chiatric disorders. Most of the published papers had studied substance-related disorders (24.6%). The most studied disorders were depressive disorders (16.9%) and the most studied aspects were symptomatology and diagnosis. Cross-sectional design was obsereved in 51.8% of the methodologies. Use of clinical trial methodologies had a mounting increase. Number of publications increased over the period especially after the year 1372. Based on the survey, tremendous growth has occurred in researches in the field of psychiatric disorders in the last decade in Iran. “Research on Research” is a valuable tool for monitoring the development of research in every discipline and is needed to make efficient judgments in employing limited resources