title: Prevalence of Conduct Disorder in the Middle East: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The global burden of conduct disorder is a major public health concern. Although there are different reports on the prevalence of conduct disorder in different Middle Eastern countries, to date, no research has reviewed them. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the literature and present the prevalence of conduct disorder among children and adolescents in Middle Eastern countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Those cross-sectional studies with any type of random or non-random sampling, which described the prevalence of conduct disorder prior to age of 18, for at least one gender in the general or school-based populations who resided in Middle Eastern countries were included in this review. The scientific databases of PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR), Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), and Grey Literature including conference proceedings, and hand searching of key journals were searched from 1995 to the end of 2014. Two reviewers assessed the quality of the included studies independently and extracted the relevant data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review provided a picture of different frequencies of conduct disorder in Middle Eastern countries and analyzed the sources of heterogeneity.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  PROSPERO CRD42014014996.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salmanian
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Aabbas Ali
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Keshtkar
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Asadian-Koohestani
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyyed Salman
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Alavi
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Neda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sepasi
keywords: Conduct Disorder; Prevalence; Systematic Review; the Middle East