[Analysis of Iran's mental health research over 3 decades: a scientometric study]

Objective: To describe the characteristics of Iran’s mental health research articles that are published over a 30-year period

Method: The articles include those concerned with psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience that were published in the national as well as international scientific journals. These articles were drawn from a national database of published research in psychiatry, psychology as well as neuroscience [IranPsych]. For this study, articles were limited to those published in a 30-year period of 1973-2002 [1352-1381 in Persian calendar]

Results: Of a total of 3031 articles published in the 30-year period, 19.8% were published in the international journals. The publication trends showed a marked increase in number over item, especially in the last 5 years. Among research areas, psychology, clinical sciences, and the neurosciences constituted the largest proportions [52.8%, 31.6%, and 13.5%, respectively]. The trend of research areas revealed an upward trajectory for the proportion of neuroscience research and a decline in the proportion of mental health service research. The topic of 38.6% of all articles was in the category of mental disorders, with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy researches constituting 14.5% and 5.7% of the articles, respectively. Among mental disorders, the largest proportions of the published research were about mood disorders, substance use related disorders, and anxiety disorders. The most commonly used research method was cross-sectional, with experimental designs comprising 15.9% and prospective research accounting for 1%. The preferred places for data collection included hospitals, schools and universities. In more than 90% of the articles there were no references to the funding sources and only 2.1% of the articles were carried out with international collaboration of the authors

Conclusion: The rising trend of mental health research publications shows the significant contribution of nation’s mental health researchers. The results of this study could provide an empirical basis for policy making and strategic planning in mental health research

[Autistic features in adult population: evidence for continuity of autistic symptoms with normality]

Objective: There have been few studies on the prevalence of autistic–spectrum symptoms in adults. We sought to study the frequency of autistic-spectrum symptoms among master degree and Ph.D. students of medical universities in Tehran. Psychometric properties of the study instrument were also examined

Method: One thousand students were offered a Farsi version of Autism- Spectrum Questionnaire. The frequency of symptoms, demographic variables and impact of participants’ gender were assessed. The instrument was also examined for the internal consistency, and test-retest reliability

Results: A total of 943 subjects completed the questionnaires. One hundred and twenty subjects [12.7%] scored above 32. The mean scores were significantly higher for males compared to females. The translated version of the instrument proved to be good in terms of internal consistency and test-retest reliability

Conclusion: Our study indicates that deficits in various aspects of social cognition seen in autism spectrum disorders are common phenomena. The findings may imply a continuum of autism spectrum symptoms and normality