ANALYSIS OF THE SPANISH SCIENTIFIC PRODUC TION ON DRUG DEPENDENCY

BACKGROUND: The investigation of drug dependency has been strengthened in the last few years in Spain. One indicator of the scientific produ ction in one area is constituted by the analysis of the studies includ ed in data bases. METHODS: The Spanish publications in the field of dr ug dependency from 1985-1990 were reviewed. The references of studies published by Spanish authors collected in MEDLINE with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) corresponding to Substance abuse or Substance depende nce were selected. The following studies were collected a) those in wh ich Spain was reported as the country of the author; b) published in S panish journals; c) those in which Spain was indicated as the MeSH; b) and c) were not included if the publications did not correspond to Sp anish authors. RESULTS: Three hundred thirty-one references were colle cted; 273 corresponded to Substance dependence and 58 to Substance abu se. The two themes most frequently studied were dependente on heroin ( n = 99) and alcoholism (n = 94). Most studies were done in universitie s, mainly in schools of Medicine. Forty-three percent of the papers we re signed by three or four authors. There were 1,044 authors; 844 (81 %) authors published one article and 9 published seven or more. Twenty -three percent of the articles were published in 1988 and 20 % in 1989 . Three hundred thirty-one studies were published in 78 journals. Sixt y percent of the journals published one article and 17 % two. The jour nal which published the most articles were MEDICINA CLINICA (n = 112), and Revista Clinica Espanola (n = 40). The foreign journal which publ ished the most articles was Drug and Alcohol Dependence (n = 11). Twen ty-nine articles were published in 7 of the journals with greatest imp act factor in this area. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the tenden cy observed in other studies and indicate the increase in the quantity and quality of the Spanish publications on drug dependence.