ADHD bibliometric study over the last 25 years (ii): correlation with social-health parameters

Abstract

In the last years, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered an emergent pathological entity. For this reason, a bibliometric analysis regarding scientific publications related to ADHD and its pharmacological treatment has been considered out, as well as its evolution during 1980-2005 period.

Using the EMBASE and MEDLINE database, we selected those documents whose title included the descriptors attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, attention deficit disorder, ADHD y ADD, and that included the country of origin of the work. Altogether, 4423 original documents were obtained. In this social-health analysis, the national participation index (PaI) into global scientific production about ADHD was calculated. We have correlated it with global PaI in Biomedicine and Health Sciences, with the PaI in the Psychiatry discipline and with Social-Health index of the main productive countries in this field, like per capita health expenditure, number of physicians or per capita gross domestic product.

United States is the most productive country (participation index, PaI=44.2), followed, at a long distance, by Canada (PaI=6.14), United Kingdom (PaI=5.07) and Germany (PaI=4.33). Of the most productive in Health Sciences, only 4 countries exceed their own PaI in the Psychiatry field (Brazil, China, Spain, and USA). Correlation between PaI and per capita health expenditure offers a similar distribution to productivity ranking, except to China, Brazil and Turkey. On the contrary, correlation between PaI and total number of physicians in each country finds in better position Canada, Australia, USA and Israel.