Global burden of mental and behavioral disorders as reflected in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: an introduction

Article type
Authors
Carrington-Ford A1, Harnke B1, Winston H2, Dellavalle R3
1University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus , USA
2University of Colorado School of Medicine, USA
3Dermatology Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, USA
Abstract
Background: Mental and behavioral disorders are increasingly becoming a topic of discussion as they relate to public health, however it remains unclear if the volume of medical literature parallels this new trend.
Objective: To determine whether systematic reviews and protocols published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) correctly reflect the disease burden for eighty-one mental and behavioral disorders identified by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 project. As an introduction, five disorders including; schizophrenia, eating disorders, pervasive developmental disorders (childhood autism and Asperger syndrome), bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders were matched to their respective GBD 2010 disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) metric to assess how well they correlated.
Methods: Two investigators independently assessed five mental and behavioral disorders. Assisted by a medical librarian, a search string including the disorder heading and sub-headings was developed with the use of the International Classification of Diseases codes (ICD-10). Employing the 'title, abstract and keywords' filter, the search string was entered to obtain all relevant reviews and protocols.
Results: A total of 416 reviews and protocols were retrieved, with 298 meeting inclusion criteria. Schizophrenia proved to be over-represented in the CDSR, followed by anxiety disorders with an intermediate representation. Disorders with the least representation included eating disorders, pervasive developmental disorders and bipolar disorder.
Conclusions: These five disorders cover the spectrum of representation in the CDSR. However, the remaining 76 conditions must be assessed to determine how well they correlate with their DALYs. The results of this and future work may prove useful in determining research prioritization.
Figure 1: Comparison of eating disorders, pervasive developmental disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders representation in the CDSR with percentage of total 2010 DALYs.