Leading countries in mental health research in Latin America and the Caribbean.
OBJECTIVE
The prevalence and burden of mental disorders have been growing in Latin-American and the Caribbean countries and research is an important tool for changing this scenario. The objective of this paper is to describe the development of mental health research in Latin American and the Caribbean countries from 1995 to 2005.


METHODS
The indicators of productivity were based on the ISI Essential Science Indicators database. We compared the number of papers and citations, as well as the number of citations per paper between 1995 and 2005 for each country ranked in the Essential Science Indicators.


RESULTS
Eleven Latin-American countries were ranked in the ISI database and six of them demonstrated a higher level of development in mental health research: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. Mexico produced the largest number of papers, while Brazil showed a larger number of citations per paper.


CONCLUSIONS
Mental health research is still incipient in Latin American and the Caribbean countries, and many challenges remain to be overcome. Also, it is necessary to establish the research priorities, to allocate more funding, and to improve researchers training in research method and design.
Razzouk
Denise
D
Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo (SP), Brazil. drazzouk@gmail.com
Zorzetto
Ricardo
R
Dubugras
Maria Thereza
MT
Gerolin
Jerônimo
J
Mari
Jair de Jesus
Jde J
D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017691:Caribbean Region; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America; D008603:Mental Health; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*