Depression in Iran: a systematic review of the literature (2000-2010)

Objective (s): Depression is a common mental disorder. In Iran it counts third for the disease burden. A systematic review of the literature was carried out to collect data on the existing evidence on the topic in Iran. The search strategy included a combination of key words ‘depression’ and ‘Iran’. The intention was to review all full publications that have been appeared in Persian and English language biomedical journals during the last ten years (2000-2010). A total of 56 papers (44 papers in Persian and 12 papers in English) were intensified and reviewed. Overall the prevalence of depression reported to vary from 6% to 73% in different populations. Females reported higher depression compared to males (about twice). Depression in rural areas was higher than urban areas. Widowed reported higher depression. There were a considerable number of papers on female depression and infertility (16 out of 56 papers). The findings from this rapid systematic review suggest that in general the prevalence of depression in Iran especially among some populations is high. It seems that the future attempt should be focused on risk factors، prevention strategies and perhaps timely treatment of patients.