[The quality of research publications in psychiatry]. / Kachestvo issledovatel'skikh publikatsii v psikhiatrii.

AIM: To evaluate the quality of research articles in psychiatry and addiction medicine published in 2015. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Five experts analyzed 51 research publications from 13 psychiatric and addiction medicine journals using a standardized questionnaire, which contains 4 general questions (type or results of the study) and 21 questions on the quality of the study. RESULTS: Only 2 articles (4%) met all criteria, 64% of the articles refer to the methodologically least demonstrative (uncontrolled/one-time, series of cases, non-randomized). The most vulnerable were the characteristics which were the most important for evidence: a description of the methods, statistical analysis, accounting for systematic errors and/or side effects, the distribution of patients by group. CONCLUSION: Research publications in psychiatry and addiction medicine have a low level of evidence.

[Zero citation of Russian institute publications on the psychiatry and addiction]. / Nulevoe tsitirovanie publikatsii rossiiskikh institutov v oblasti psikhiatrii i narkologii.

AIM: To evaluate the zero-citation sizes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Based on the data of the Russian Science Citation Index the publication activity of four leading institutes in the field of Psychiatry and Addiction is analyzed. The same indices in the field of Neurology were used as a control. Number and percentage of publications with ≥1 citations and zero-citation were analyzed. RESULTS: It has been shown that in psychiatric science zero citation rate is quite high (from 32.8% to 47.2%, an average of 42.9%). It is higher compared to the control. CONCLUSION: Zero-citation indicator is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of scientific institutions.

[Publishing activities and citation of publications of researchers of Russian institutes in the field of psychiatry and addiction]. / Publikatsionnaya deyatel'nost' i tsitirovanie statei sotrudnikov institutov v oblasti psikhiatrii i narkologii.

AIM: To compare publishing activities of six research institutes in the field of psychiatry and addiction for 2006-2014. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An analysis of publishing activities was based on the data of the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) of 2006-2014. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The institutes have published 9662 papers that have been cited 39 263 times (4.1 per publication). The main indicators of publication activity between institutes differ by 4.4-6.4 times. In total, 14 089 scientific publications have been registered by the RSCI, 50.2% of them have been never cited. The self-citing rate was relatively high (32.2%).

[Publishing activity of Russian research institutes in the field of psychiatry and addictology in 2006-2013].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the publication activity of 6 psychiatric institutes based on the data from the Russian Citation Index (RCI). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Weighted average data of the last five years was selected for analysis: number of publications and citations per author, number of citations per publication, impact factor of journals published the papers. The analysis of the dynamics of publication activity and citations for the period of 2006-2013 for 6 institutes has been performed. RESULTS: The analysis shows that the Research Center of Mental Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMS) is the leader among in publication activity in the field of "psychiatry and addiction medicine". In second place the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry and the National Research Center of Addictology. Then, by a large margin, are the Bechterev St.Peterburg Research Psycho-Neurological Institute, the Serbsky National Research Center of Social and Forensic Psychiatry and the Siberian Research Mental Health Institute of RAMS. CONCLUSION: RCI data is an important source of information regarding scientific activity of research institutes although the data should be interpreted with caution.

[Methods of statistical analysis in psychiatric publications].

In order to evaluate the use of statistical methods, authors analyzed the articles in the "Korsakoff Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry" 2007-2008 (351 articles) and the "Social and Clinical Psychiatry" 2007 (73 articles). The data were compared to the results of the similar Russian study performed 15 and 20 years ago and the English-language study performed 25 years ago. It has been concluded that the share of articles without any statistical data analysis has decreased dramatically, the use of tables and graphs has become obligatory, t-test has become one of the most used (without any explication of its usage in many cases). Russian publications remain behind English-language articles in using statistical methods.

[Comparative scientometric analysis of the Proceedings of XIII and XIV Congresses of Russian psychiatrists: narcology].

An analysis of the chapter "Medical help for the substance abuses, clinic, treatment of the abusers, biological studies of the abuses' in the Proceedings of the last two Russian congresses of psychiatrists (XIII in 2000 and XIV in 2005) reveals the vast multiplicity of topics. The majority of topics featured in the XIII Congress does not provide any follow-up information in the materials of the XIV Congress thus not allowing to figure out the tendencies or consequences in the field of addiction studies. There is no uniformity in the vocabulary used in the chapter analyzed. The dominant topics such as alcoholism and opiate abuse make up a small part of the total amount of papers.

[Regional indices of alcoholic poisonings and alcoholic psychoses]. / Oblastnye pokazateli alkogol'nykh otravlenii i alkogol'nykh psikhozov.

Interrelations of phenomena preconditioned by alcohol consumption were the starting prerequisite of the case study. The annual lethality rates due the to alcohol poisonings (AP) and alcoholic psychosis (APS) morbidity were investigated in 77 Russia's regions during 1991-1999, when the alcohol consumption used to be dynamic in the country--a sharp growth in 1991-1994, a drop in 1995-1998, and a new increase in 1999. The correlation of studied phenomena was observed only in 33 regions. The ratio of AP level to APS level varied in different regions and during different time periods from 50-fold AP prevalence to 65-fold APS prevalence. The distribution of APS indices was normal, while the distribution of AP deviated from the norm towards a higher dispersion. Two etalons were made use of, i.e. one for AP and the other for APS, to assess the differences between the AP and APS indices. APS differed from the appropriate etalon by far less versus AP. A list of regions with respect for deviations of APS and AP indices was compiled. A conclusion was made to the extent that consciously or unconsciously the postmortem diagnoses of AP were concealed in a majority of Russia's regions; APS were not registered in full either. However, the latter reflect better the alcohol-related situation in regions versus AP.

Alcohol-related human losses in Russia in the 1980s and 1990s.

AIMS: The estimation of alcohol-related human losses in Russia in the 1980s and 1990s. DESIGN: The estimation was made by comparing changes in the total number of deaths and in specific categories, and alcohol consumption in Russia during this time. SETTING: The anti-alcohol campaign, launched in 1985, and the market reforms launched in 1992 were associated with large and rapid changes of alcohol-consumption in Russia. FINDINGS: In the early 1980s, the aggregate number of direct and indirect alcohol-related life losses was more than 500,000 per annum, or 32% of total deaths. Half of the alcohol-related human losses in Russia over the period studied were due to accidents, poisoning and violence. Following the anti-alcohol campaign and reduction in annual per capita alcohol consumption from 14.2 (1984) to 10.5 l (1986), mortality decreased from 1161.6 to 1054.0 per 100,000 of the population. It is estimated that from 1986 to 1991 the lives of 1.22 million people were spared; that is, 11.4% of the number of deaths expected without the anti-alcohol campaign. All categories of deaths were reduced with the exception of neoplasms, infectious and parasitic diseases. In the period of the so-called market reforms both alcohol consumption and mortality increased sharply. The total number of alcohol-related deaths for 1994 was 751,000 in the population, or 33% of all deaths (direct and indirect losses). In 1995 alcohol consumption started to decrease. A decrease in mortality was registered despite the sharp deterioration of the quality of life in the country. However, a new growth of total mortality, fatal alcohol poisonings and number of alcohol psychoses began in 1999-2000. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show the enormous scale of alcohol-related mortality in Russia. It has been revealed that alcohol-related deaths are at the top of the hierarchy of all premature deaths in the country. Decreasing alcohol consumption is an important means of decreasing total mortality in Russia.

Estimates of total alcohol consumption in Russia, 1980-1994.

It is important to estimate real alcohol consumption in Russia in the past 15 years because large quantities, and in recent years the bulk, of consumed alcohol evades state registration. In this study, trends in total consumption are estimated indirectly using an indicator of alcohol-related harm derived from forensic reports on accidental and violent deaths (Nemtsov, A.V., 1998. Anti-alcohol campaign, consequences, and actual alcohol consumption in Moscow, Addiction, in press). Using blood alcohol coefficients (BAC), the regression coefficients are estimated using the ratio of BAC-positive and BAC-negative accidental and violent deaths in 1983-1986 in connection with the Moscow anti-alcohol campaign; the coefficients are then used to estimate consumption as a total sum of legal sales of alcoholic beverages and illegal spirits made from sugar. Data were obtained of violent BAC-positive and BAC-negative deaths in 17-25 oblasts of Russia in 1981-1994. The derived estimates indicate that in 1984 consumption exceeded 14 l per capita, per annum (10.5 registered + 4.2 unregistered); that consumption fell to 10.8 1 in 1986 (during the anti-alcohol campaign), and that it then began to rise owing to a sharp increase in estimated unregistered alcohol consumption-climbing to 13.6 l (5.0 + 8.6) in 1993, and followed by a slight decline to 13.3 in 1994. These estimates are broadly consistent with estimates that have been made using unrelated methods, thus allowing some confidence in the overall picture obtained. Russia probably remains one of the heaviest-drinking countries in Europe. The reasons why indicators of alcohol-related harm in the mid-1990s exceed those recorded before the anti-alcohol campaign remain to be clarified.

[Seasonal incidence of alcoholic psychoses]. / Sezonnost' zabolevaemosti alkogol'nymi psikhozami.

Analysis of the incidence of alcoholic psychoses in Moscow in 1982-1993 revealed a considerable increase of their number during the period from March till July-August and a decrease by October-November. It was found that such increase resulted from low-concentration atmospheric oxygen in spring-summer period. Hypoxia as a factor provoking alcoholic psychosis is responsible for 10-12% of the cases. The highest sensitivity to hypoxia occurred in the last days of the abuse.

Alcohol-related harm and alcohol consumption in Moscow before, during and after a major anti-alcohol campaign.

AIMS: To examine the rates of alcohol-related harm in relation to levels of alcohol consumption before, during and after a major anti-alcohol campaign in Moscow. DESIGN: Changes in State alcohol sale and alcohol consumption and certain forms of alcohol-related harm were observed as a function of time. FINDINGS: Following the 1985 anti-alcohol campaign, State alcohol sales decreased by 38.0% in 1.5 years in Moscow, and total consumption decreased by 28.6%. At the same time, admissions for alcohol-related mental and behavioural disorders, deaths from liver cirrhosis, alcohol poisoning and other blood alcohol positive violent deaths decreased by 63.3%, 33.0%, 50.8% and 50.9%, respectively. There was a linear correlation between medical variables and alcohol consumption during its decrease in 1985-86. An increase in blood alcohol positive violent deaths began in 1987, before the increases in other variables. Growth of total alcohol consumption began in 1987, and continued during all subsequent years, although it was especially high in 1992-93 at the time of the introduction of market reforms in Russia. Alcohol-related mental and behavioural disorders and liver cirrhosis mortality increased after a time-lag following the rise in alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide stark evidence of the potential impact of policy measures applied to general alcohol consumption on alcohol-related harm.

[Transformation of semantic concepts in alcoholism]. / Transformatsiia smyslovykh obrazovanii pri alkogolizme.

As many as 20 alcoholic patients and 20 healthy men were subjected to a free associative experiment with the stimuli-words such as "wife", "chief", "shop", while the word "pencil" was used as neutral control. In the patients, the words "chief" and "wife", in particular, evoked highly predominant emotional associations due to the negative characteristics of the chief and positive ones of the wife, her general human qualities and attitude toward her husband. The latter association was compensatory in nature, reflecting the importance of the wife theme for alcoholic patients. As compared to the healthy persons, the degree of transformation of the meanings of the stimuli-words in the patients can serve as an indicator of the importance of the meanings "wife", "chief", "shop" and "pencil" (zero transformation). The data obtained indicate that the psychosomatic approach makes it possible to rearrange the semantic structure of the patients transformed personality, to reveal its so-called "hot points" which may require psychocorrection.