World Psychiatric Association regional congress 2014A

The World Psychiatric Association is an international umbrella organisation of psychiatric societies.

Objectives and goals

Originally created to produce world psychiatric congresses, it has evolved to hold regional meetings, to promote professional education and to set ethical, scientific and treatment standards for

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

History

Jean Delay was the first president of the Association for the Organization of World Congresses of Psychiatry when it was started in 1950.

Donald Ewen Cameron Donald Ewen Cameron ( – ) was a Scottish-born psychiatrist. He is largely known today for his central role in unethical medical experiments, and development of psychological and medical torture techniques for the . He served as president of ...

became president of the World Psychiatric Association at its formal founding in 1961. In February 1983, the Soviet All-Union Society of Neurologists and Psychiatrists resigned from the World Psychiatric Association. This resignation occurred as a preemptive action amid a movement to expel the Soviet body from the global organization due to

political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union There was systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, based on the interpretation of political opposition or dissent as a psychiatric problem. It was called "psychopathological mechanisms" of dissent. During the leadership ...

. The Soviet body was conditionally readmitted into the World Psychiatric Association in 1989, following some improvements in human rights conditions, and an intensive debate among the association's delegates, in which the acting secretary of the Soviet delegation issued a statement conceding that "previous political conditions in the U.S.S.R. created an environment in which psychiatric abuse occurred, including for nonmedical reasons."

Helen Herrman Helen Edith Herrman AO is the President of the World Psychiatric Association. She is the second woman, and first Australian to be elected to the position. Educated at Monash University, Herrman received an MD for her 1981 thesis, "An Epidemiolo ...

is president, and Afzal Javed is president-elect.

Structure

the institutional members of the World Psychiatric Association are 138 national psychiatric societies in 118 countries representing more than 200,000 psychiatrists worldwide. The societies are clustered into 18 zones and four regions: the Americas, Europe, Africa & Middle East, and Asia & Australasia. Representatives of the societies constitute the World Psychiatric Association General Assembly, the governing body of the organization. The association also has individual members and there are provisions for affiliation of other associations (e.g., those dealing with a particular topic in psychiatry). There are 72 scientific sections.

Publications

The official publication of the association is '' World Psychiatry.'' ''World Psychiatry'' and the association's official books are published by

Wiley-Blackwell Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

. WPA also self-publishes a quarterly newsletter on its website. Several WPA scientific sections have their own official journals and newsletters: ; Journals : ' (Psychiatric Electrophysiology Section) : ''Archives of Women's Mental Health'' (Women's Mental Health Section) : ''

History of Psychiatry History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

'' (History of Psychiatry Section) : ' (Ecology, Psychiatry and Mental Health Section) : ''International Journal of Mental Health'' (Psychiatric Rehabilitation Section) : ''

Journal of Affective Disorders The ''Journal of Affective Disorders'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering research on all aspects of affective disorders. It is published by Elsevier and its editors-in-chief are P. Brambilla and J.C. Soares. It was established in 1979 an ...

'' (Affective Disorders Section) : ''Journal of Intellectual Disability Research'' (Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability Section) : '' Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics'' (Mental Health Economics Section) : ''

Personality and Mental Health Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...

'' (Personality Disorders Section) : ''Psychiatry in General Practice'' (Rural Mental Health Section) : ''

Psychopathology Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era. Biological psychopatholo ...

'' (Classification, Diagnostic Assessment and Nomenclature Section; Clinical Psychopathology Section) : ' (Disaster Psychiatry Section) : ' (Disaster Psychiatry Section) : ''

Transcultural Psychiatry ''Transcultural Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the fields of cultural psychiatry, psychology and anthropology. The journal's editor-in-chief is Laurence J. Kirmayer (McGill University). The Associate Edi ...

'' (Transcultural Psychiatry Section) ; Newsletters : Art & Psychiatry Section (Section of the Psychopathology of Expression) : Child and Adolescent Psychiatry : Early Career Psychiatrists : ''Psyche and Spirit'' (Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry) : Psychological Consequences of Torture and Persecutions Section : Psychotherapy Section : ''World Healer'' (Transcultural Psychiatry Section)

Activities

The association has helped establish a

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

of professional ethics for psychiatrists. The association has also looked into charges regarding China's treatment of the Falun Gong.

References

External links

*
WPA Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry

WPA Transcultural Psychiatry Section
{{authority control International medical associations Psychiatric associations Scientific supraorganizations Organisations based in Geneva Professional associations based in Switzerland Scientific organisations based in Switzerland Scientific organizations established in 1961 1961 establishments in Switzerland