Mathematical methods in psychiatric papers

A comparative study was carried out to determine the trend in the use of statistical methods in the papers published in the leading Russian, American and British psychiatric journals of the 1980–90-ies. Within 10 years the quota of papers with statistics increased considerably in the American and British journals (from 58.6% to 67.6%), especially in theArchives of General Psychiatry (88%). Qualitative changes were notable as well, tending towards the use of non-ordinary innovative methods. As regards the Russian psychiatric papers the use of statistical methods was a rare occurrence (21.8% in 1980s), that never changed within 10 years.