Italian psychiatry – 25 years of change

Italian psychiatry is probably more debated than known in the international arena. Law 180 of 1978, which introduced a radical community psychiatry system, has drawn worldwide attention and debate, with comments ranging from the enthusiastic to the frankly disparaging (Mosher, 1982; Jones et al, 1991). More recently, this interest was marked by a well-attended symposium ‘Lessons Learned from Italian Reforms in Psychiatry’ held at the 2003 annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Edinburgh.