Mapping exercise of mental health research and researchers in Pakistan.
OBJECTIVE
To systematically identify mental health research and researchers in Pakistan. Subsidiary objectives were to identify methodologies of studies published in the indexed journals along with their country wide mean impact factor.


METHODS
A systematic search strategy using key words related to neuropsychiatry was carried out to identify various studies published in Indexed and Non-indexed databases.


RESULTS
We identified 108 studies from Indexed data bases (77.8% Medline; 22.2% PsychInfo). Beside these, 51 studies were also identified from non-indexed databases. Among the indexed articles, 97 (89.8%) were Journal articles while 10 were other type of documents--there were 3 clinical trials of which only one was a randomized controlled trial. The mean Impact Factor (IF) of these studies was 2.75 (Range; 2.21-3.29). The median IF was 2.90. The most preferred journal for publication was the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association (JPMA; N = 33) followed by British Journal of Psychiatry (B J Psych; N = 11) and Journal of College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan (JCPSP; N = 9). From the indexed and non-indexed publications we identified 43 researchers. Among these 34 (80%) were psychiatrists.


CONCLUSIONS
The key finding of this mental health research mapping exercise is that mental health research output from Pakistan is low both in numbers and quality, with very few studies making it to high impact international journals. There is an urgent need to strengthen research capacity in areas of mental health at individual, organizational and macro-system levels.
Naqvi
Haider A
HA
Department of Psychiatry, The Aga Khan University, Karachi.
Khan
Murad M
MM
D035843:Biomedical Research; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D010154:Pakistan; D012108:Research Personnel