Prevalence of Mental Disorders among High-School Students in Iran: A Systematic Review

Objective: The aim of the present study is to perform a systematic review of studies that investigated the prevalence of any kind of mental disorders in high school students in Iran. Method: A broad search was conducted in MEDLINE/PubMed, ISI web of Science, PsychINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE, and three Iranian databases, including IranPsych, IranMedex, and Scientific Information Database (SID). To cover studies not published, we did a hand searching of all theses, reports and congresses' abstract booklets which were available in IranPsych. Then, we included the original studies which reported the prevalence of any kind of mental disorders in high school students; data extraction was performed with two researchers for each document. Results: Sixteen studies were finally included, representing 19 estimates of mental disorders in high school students, using diagnostic or screening instruments. The prevalence rate of any mental disorder reported by two studies using diagnostic instruments was equal to 16.6% and 4.34%. The median of prevalence rates of mental disorders reported in studies using screening instruments was 34.4%. There was a significant heterogeneity between the studies. Conclusion: Prevalence rates of mental disorders were reported in a wide range in high school students of Iran. More studies with improved quality are needed in this field.