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Schizophrenia (2007)

Methodology

Schizophrenia is a chronic and serious brain disorder marked by hallucinations and delusions. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the disease affects approximately one percent of Americans, generally manifesting in men in their late teens and in women in their mid-twenties to early thirties. Schizophrenia appears to afflict both men and women equally, and does not seem to be more prevalent in any ethnic group. Special Topics has analyzed the publications on schizophrenia over the past decade and over the past two years.

The most prevalent theme of the past decade is that of treatment. Drug trials comparing olanzapine, haloperidol, risperidone, clozapine, and quetiapine with each other as well as with placebo dominate the top 20 papers over the past 10 years. Also notable is the research on schizophrenia genetics, which includes examinations of neuregulin 1 and COMT Val/Met alleles. MRI findings in schizophrenic brains, neurocognitive deficits, and diagnostic tools are also among the top 20 papers on this list.

Over the past two years, the dominant topic appears to have shifted from drug treatment to schizophrenia genetics. Among the genetics papers on the list of the top 20 papers published in the past two years are studies of DISC1, neuregulin 1, BDNF, COMT Val/Met, PDE4B, and mitochondria-related genes. The effects of drug treatment on glucose metabolism, the CATIE trial, neurochemical markers, remission criteria, and social factors of schizophrenia are also addressed in this list.

Methodology

To construct this database, papers were extracted based on title-supplied keywords for Schizophrenia. The keywords used were as follows: 

schizophreni*

The baseline time span for this database is 1997-June 30, 2007 (third bimonthly period of 2007). The resulting database contained 13,989 (10 years) and 3,876 (2 years) papers; 26,117 authors; 99 countries; 947 journals; and 6,863 institutions.

The baseline time span for this database is 1997-June 30, 2007 (third bimonthly period of 2007). The resulting database contained 13,989 (10 years) and 3,876 (2 years) papers; 26,117 authors; 99 countries; 947 journals; and 6,863 institutions.

Rankings

Once the database was in place, it was used to generate the lists of top 20 papers (two- and ten-year periods), authors, journals, institutions, and nations, covering a time span of 1997-June 30, 2007 (third bimonthly, a ten-year plus six-month period).

The top 20 papers are ranked according to total cites. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper. The paper thresholds and corresponding percentages used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows:

Entity: Scientists Institutions Countries Journals
Thresholds: 25 73 10 24
Percentage: 1% 1% 50% 10%

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This special topic of Schizophrenia was originally featured in our debut issue of ESI Topics in July 2001. To view the archived Schizophrenia topic, click here.

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