Mapping the research activity on psychiatric disorders in Bahrain : a 40-year analysis

Abstract EN

Objective: To map all the published, unpublished and ongoing psychiatric research in the Kingdom of Bahrain over the past 40 years.

Design: A Scoping Review.

Setting: Ministry of Health, Bahrain.

Method: Data were collected by electronic database search including Medline, EMBASE, Scopus (1980-2019), personal contact, and records of the secondary health care research committee.

Researches were tabulated according to type, design, target population, and clinical categories.

Result: Six hundred fifty-three published papers, 37 unpublished reports, and 17 ongoing projects were reviewed.

Number (80%) were published between 2015 and 2019.

General adult psychiatry papers constituted 275 (38.9%) followed by geriatric psychiatry, 154 (21.8%).

The majority of published material was describing health services in 472 (66.8%) followed by epidemiology prevalence in 157 (22.2%) and diagnosis and treatment in 24 (3.4%).

Two hundred thirty-five (33.2%) of research addressed depressive disorders, 124 (17.5%) schizophrenia, 86 (12.2%) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, 92 (13%) autism spectrum disorder, 84 (11.9%) bipolar disorder and 32 (4.5%) dementia.

Studies utilized cross-sectional design in 585 (82.7%), 42 (5.9%) case-controls and 25 (3.5%) systematic review and meta-analysis.

Conclusion: Long-term follow-up studies, cohort, national prevalence rate of disorders, and clinical trials were lacking.

The performance evaluation of staff for promotion and future training opportunities should have a component of research productivity.