National and sub-national prevalence, trend, and burden of mental disorders and substance abuse in Iran: 1990 - 2013, study protocol.

BACKGROUND The measurement of population-based dimensions of mental disorders and their effects on the population health is one of the major public health concerns.  There is some evidence on the trend and point estimations of mental disease and substance abuse for many specific groups of Iranian population but there is a progressive requirement to documents on their exposure distribution at sub-national level, information about their trends, and their effects on the population health.  METHODS The present protocol is aimed to provide the standards of data collection and methodology processes for estimating the trends of selected mental disorders and their attributed burden at national and sub-national levels. For nine categories of mental disorders, we will estimate 1990 to 2013 trends of prevalence, Years of Life Lost due to premature mortality (YLLs), and Years Lived with Disability (YLDs) and Disability-Adjusted Life Years DALYs by sex, age group, and province. We will also quantify the uncertainty intervals for the estimates of interest. CONCLUSION The study of National and sub-national prevalence, trend, and burden of mental disorders and substance abuse in Iran provides valuable convincing evidences for policy makers and other stakeholders for more evidence-based priority setting, resource allocation, interventions, service providing, and evaluation at both national and sub-national levels. The results also could be used for future complementary global, regional, national, and sub national studies.