ABSTRACT
The aim of this research was to investigate the quality of studies on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Iran. All studies on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among Iraniangeneral population as well as school children over 15 were identified through searching several databases including PubMed, ISI WOS, PsychINFO, CINAHL, Irandoc, EMBASE, IranPsych, IranMedex, and Scientific Information Database as well as reference lists of the accessed documents, unpublished reports, conference proceedings and dissertations. The original studies, which contained an estimation of the prevalence of "any psychiatric disorder" [overall prevalence] among a sample of general population or high school students in the country were selected. A quality assessment checklist was developed based on the following criteria: accurate description of research questions, random sampling, representativeness of the study sample for a defined target population, using the same method of data collection for the entire sample, using valid and reliable tools, and proper analysis of the results. The assessment was performed on those studies on the prevalence of any psychiatric disorder in the country that had used random sampling [43 studies]. It showed that in only about 40% of the studies the sample was representative of the target population. In more than 25% of the studies, validity and reliability of the Persian translation of the instruments were not assessed or were not reported. In total, nearly a third of studies had acceptable quality [random sampling, application of valid and reliable tools, and sample representing the target population]. Although this research - as part of a systematic review-was based only on a group of prevalence studies in psychiatric disorders, its findings indicated that a significant proportion of these studies are non-compliant with key quality measures. Instead of mere emphasis on increasing the number and quantity of studies, policy makers should employ strategies to improve research quality
Subject(s)
Humans , Prevalence , Quality ControlABSTRACT
Poor premorbid adjustment has been reported to be a predictor of more severe psychotic symptoms and poor quality of life in such psychotic disorders as schizophrenia. However, most studies were performed on chronic schizophrenic patients, and proposed the likelihood of recall biases and the effect of chronicity. The aim of this study was to investigate these factors in a sample of first episode psychotic patients, as a part of Roozbeh first episode psychosis project [RooF]. Premorbid adjustment was assessed using Premorbid Adjustment Scale [PAS] in 48 patients with the first psychotic episode who were admitted to Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital. The severity of symptoms was measured using Positive and Negative Scale [PANSS] in three subgroups of positive, negative and general subscales. Quality of life was measured using WHO QOL, and Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF] was also measured. The mean age was 24 years. Poor Premorbid adjustment in late adolescence was significantly associated with more severe symptoms according to PANSS negative symptoms [p=0.019, r=0.44]. Furthermore, sociability and peer relationship domains had a positive correlation with PANSS negative subscale scores [r=0.531, p=0.002 and r=0.385, p=0.03, respectively]. There were no significant differences between males and females in premorbid adjustment. Furthermore, this study failed to show any differences between affective and non-affective psychosis in premorbid functioning. Our study confirms poor premorbid adjustment association with more severe negative symptoms and poor quality of life in a sample of Iranian first episode psychotic patients