Asian Journal of Epidemiology1992-14622077-205XAsian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/aje.2017.45.53RanjanJay Kumar AsthanaHari Shankar 22017102The present study focused on a systematic review and meta-analysis of literature related to the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in India and other South Asian countries. This study was carried out to fill up the scanty research conducted in the quantitative review of the prevalence of common mental disorders in South Asian countries. For this purpose, PubMed, PsycINFO, EBSCOhost and Google Scholar databases were searched to find out studies that examined the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in South Asia. Subsequently, additional articles were searched based on the references mentioned in the identified published studies. Retrieved articles were systematically selected using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The present meta-analysis included 34 epidemiological studies consisting of 158555 persons, out of which a total number of 8389 persons were reported to have mental disorders across seven countries of South Asia. This alarming number of mentally disordered people amounts to 122 per 1000 population, i.e. (95% CI: 8-252, Z = 1.82, p<0.06). Epidemiological studies also reported that prevalence of mental disorders varied from 6.06 to 533.73/1000 population in South Asia. From the present review, it may be concluded that psychiatric disorders are affecting people across all the regions of South Asia and appears to be a serious public health issue in South Asia.]]>Trivedi, J.K., D. Goel, R.A. Kallivayalil, M. Isaac, D.M. Shrestha and H.C. Gambheera,200765759Trivedi, J.K., P.K. Gupta and R. Saha,201052S68S71Thirunavukarasu, M. and A.S. Sundar,201121318Reddy, M.V. and C.R. Chandrashekar,199840149157Ganguli, H.C.,2000421420Gururaj, G., N. Girish and M.K. Isaac,20052005Math, S.B., C.R. Chandrashekar and D. Bhugra,2007126183192Math, S.B. and R. Srinivasaraju,20105295103Hossain, M.D., H.U. Ahmed, W.A. Chowdhury, L.W. Niessen and D.S. Alam,20142014Moher, D., D.J. Cook, S. Eastwood, I. Olkin, D. Rennie and D.F. Stroup,199935418961900Bax, L., L.M. Yu, N. Ikeda and K.G.M. Moons,20072007Schulze, R.,2004Pages: 253Pages: 253Borenstein, M., L.V. Hedges, J.P.T. Higgins and H.R. Rothstein,2009Pages: 450Pages: 450Surya, N.C., S.P. Datta, G.R. Krishna, D. Sundaram and J. Kutty,19641964Sethi, B.B., S.C. Gupta and S. Rajkumar,19679280302Dube, K.G.,197046327359Elnagar, M.N., P. Maitra and M.N. Rao,1971118499503Sethi, B.B., S.C. Gupta, R. Kumar and K. Promila,197214183196Verghese, A., A. Beig, L.A. Senseman, S.S. Rao and V. Benjamin,197361608620Sethi, B.B., S.C. Gupta, R.K. Mahendru and P. Kumari,1974124243246Thacore, V.R., S.C. Gupta and M. Suraiya,1975126364369Nandi, D.N., S. Ajmany, H. Ganguli, G. Banerjee, G.C. Boral, A. Ghosh and S. Sarkar,1975178799Nandi, D.N., S.P. Mukherjee, G.C. Boral, G. Banerjee and A. Ghosh et al.,197719212Nandi, D.N., G. Banerjee, G.C. Boral, H. Ganguli, A. Ghosh and S. Sarkar,197959276293Shah, A.V., U.A. Goswami, R.C. Maniar, D.C. Hajariwala and B.K. Sinha,198022384389Mehta, P., A. Joseph and A. Verghese,198527153158Sachdeva, J.S., S. Singh, B.S. Sidhu, R.K.D. Goyal and J. Singh,198628317323Reddy, P.R., K.K. Murthy and B. Anand,1994101119Premarajan, K.C., M. Danabalan, R. Chandrasekar and D.K. Srinivasa,19933599102Shaji, S., A. Verghese, K. Promodu, B. George and V.P. Shibu,1995379196Nandi, D.N., G. Banerjee, S.P. Mukherjee, P.S. Nandi and S. Nandi,2000176351356Sharma, S. and M.M. Singh,200143118126Deswal, B.S. and A. Pawar,201237116121Mumford, D.B., M. Nazir, F.U. Jilani and I.Y. Baig,1996168299307Mumford, D.B., K. Saeed, I. Ahmad, S. Latif and M.H. Mubbashar,1997170473478Mumford, D.B., F.A. Minhas, I. Akhtar, S. Akhter and M.H. Mubbashar,2000177557562Chowdhury, A.K., M.N. Alam and S.M. Ali,198172239Islam, M.M., M. Ali, P. Ferroni, P. Underwood and M.F. Alam,200325353357Karim, E., M.F. Alam, A.H.M. Rahman, A.A.M. Hussain, M.J. Uddin and A.H.M. Firoz,2011191823Hosain, G.M.M., N. Chatterjee, N. Ara and T. Islam,20071211824NIMHH. and WHO.,2007pp: 1-27pp: 1-27Tausig, M., S. Subedi, J. Ross, C.L. Broughton, R. Singh, J. Blangero and S. Williams-Blangero,20002000Upadhyaya, K.D. and K. Pol,200342328330Khattri, J.B., B.M. Poudel, P. Thapa, S.T. Godar, S. Tirkey, K. Ramesh and P.K. Chakrabortty,201325256Wijesinghe, C.P., S.A.W. Dissanayake and P.V.L.N. Dassanayake,197858413441Wangmo, S. and K. Wangmo,20092009Trani, J.F. and P. Bakhshi,201350108139Steel, Z., C. Marnane, C. Iranpour, T. Chey, J.W. Jackson, V. Patel and D. Silove,201443476493Koirala, N.R., S.K. Regmi, V.D. Sharma and A. Khalid,199913440Business Week,20062006Higgin, J.P., S.G. Thompson, J.J. Deeks and D.G. Altman,2003327557560