International psychiatry – an agenda for the way forward

A news release from the World Health Organization (2003) suggested that a mere 10% of global health research is devoted to diseases that account for 90% of the global disease burden. While this comment refers primarily to research into infectious and parasitic diseases, a similar trend may well be true for psychiatry, taken from a global perspective. A cursory glance at recent issues of World Psychiatry, the official journal of the World Psychiatric Association, will reveal articles describing recent advances in antidepressant treatment and other pharmacotherapies, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, personality disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the genetics of mental illness. These topics are obviously important and the field cannot advance without such cutting-edge research. Most of the authors are, as expected, psychiatrists living and working in Western Europe or North America. This is also, of course, acceptable and important. The dissemination of scientific data is essential for advancing the field, and researchers who live and work in Europe and North America are generally the most qualified to do so. So, what’s the problem?