Brief report - mental health research on low- and middle-income countries in indexed journals: a preliminary assessment.

BACKGROUND

Mental health research focused on low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries is needed in view of the burden of neuropsychiatric diseases and the deficiency of mental health resources in these countries.

AIMS OF THE STUDY

To examine whether mental health research publications on LAMI countries address issues that are likely to influence public mental health.

METHOD

Four databases were searched for years 2000 and 2001 with subject headings related to mental disorders, mental health services, somatic therapies and psychotherapy. Countries were categorized into income groups according to World Bank (2000) criteria. The title, index words and abstracts were reviewed.

RESULTS

Almost 55% of publications related to ten LAMI countries. One sixth of research publications related to services/policies, but less than 1% were devoted to economic evaluation. Affective disorders, self-inflicted injuries and mental retardation were under-researched.

DISCUSSION

The geographic spread of internationally accessible mental health research publications is limited. Moreover, publications from LAMI countries often do not address public mental health issues. Use of a single rater might have led to some arbitrariness in classification of articles and some relevant articles would have been missed because of our inability to include all relevant databases.

IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVISION AND USE

Sustained support by various stakeholders is needed for research that can inform mental health care provision and use in LAMI countries.

IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICIES

Scientific research can inform mechanisms that influence policy and public health if adequate attention is paid to dissemination of findings to end users.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

There is a need to focus research in LAMI countries on mental health conditions causing high burden that are currently under-researched (e.g. depression, mental retardation, self-inflicted injuries), policy and service issues, and mental health economics.