The 10/90 divide in mental health research: Trends over a 10-year period

Abstract

A search (precision value 94%, recall value 93%) of the ISI Web of Science database (1992-2001) revealed that mental health publications accounted for 3-4% of the health literature. A 10/90 divide in internationally accessible mental health literature was evident and remained undiminished through 10 years as low- and middle-income countries (n=152) contributed only 6%, high-income countries (n=54) 94%, and 14 leading high-income countries (with more than 1% contribution for majority of years under consideration) contributed 90% of internationally accessible mental health research. Steps should be taken to improve the research infrastructure and capacity to conduct and disseminate mental health research in general, and on a priority basis in low- and middle-income countries.

The relationship between research publications in two leading geriatric psychiatry journals and elderly population size, socio-economic status and markers of mental health care

“…The positive correlation between the number of research publications and the GDP confirmed previous reports of a paucity of publications from LMI countries in leading psychiatric journals (Patel and Sumanthipala, 2001;Saxena et al, 2006;Patel and Kim, 2007;Konradsen and Munk-Jorgensen, 2007). This may have several sequential explanations.…”

“…Research papers from LMI countries, compared to high income countries, have lower rates of submission to and acceptance by leading psychiatric journals (Patel and Sumanthipala, 2001;Saxena et al, 2006;Patel and Kim, 2007;Konradsen and Munk-Jorgensen, 2007). Low submission rates for research papers in geriatric psychiatry from LMI countries may be due to paucity of research because the elderly constitute a comparatively small proportion of the total population in such countries (Jacob and Ganguli, 2007).…”

Barriers in the mind: promoting an economic case for mental health in low‐ and middle‐income countries

“…Increasingly, economic analyses are being undertaken in low-and middle-income countries (27)(28)(29)(30)(31), but the overwhelming majority of studies are from high-income countries. This is not surprising: between 1992 and 2001 only 4% of articles in journals on the ISI Web of Science databases were on mental health issues; of these a mere 6% were from low-and middle-income countries (32). Similarly, Patel and Kim (33) found, from their review of publications between 2002 and 2004 in six leading journals, that only 3.7% of papers were from low-income countries.…”

Setting priorities for global mental health research

“…7 This gap stunts the development of evidence-based health policies and practice in low-and middle-income countries and limits progress in medicine and public health. 8,9 The impact of the gap is particularly evident in the field of mental health, in which the evidence base depends mainly on European and North American cultural norms. 10 Recent studies indicate that up to 94% of the published literature in high-impact psychiatric journals is from North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand, 11 with sometimes as little as 3% originating from low-and middle-income countries.…”