# World Psychiatric Association

The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) 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.

## 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 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. 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."
As of October 2023, Danuta Wasserman is president, and Thomas G. Schulze is president-elect.
World Congress locations and WPA leadership :
| Year | World Congress | President | President | Secretary General | Secretary General |
| Year | World Congress | Name | Country | Name | Country |
| 1950 | Paris, France | Jean Delay | France | Henry Ey | France |
| 1957 | Zurich, Switzerland | Jean Delay | France | Henry Ey | France |
| 1961 | Montreal, Canada | D. Ewen Cameron | Canada | Henry Ey | France |
| 1966 | Madrid, Spain | Juan J. López-Ibor | Spain | Denis Leigh | U.K. |
| 1972 | Mexico City, Mexico | Howard Rome | USA | Denis Leigh | U.K. |
| 1977 | Hawaii, USA | Pierre Pichot | France | Peter Berner | Austria |
| 1983 | Vienna, Austria | Costas Stefanis | Greece | Fini Schulsinger | Denmark |
| 1989 | Athens, Greece | Jorge A. Costa e Silva | Brazil | Juan J. López-Ibor, Jr. | Spain |
| 1993 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Felice Lieh-Mak | Hong Kong | Juan J. López-Ibor, Jr. | Spain |
| 1996 | Madrid, Spain | Norman Sartorius | Switzerland | Juan Mezzich | USA |
| 1999 | Hamburg, Germany | Juan J. López-Ibor, Jr. | Spain | Juan Mezzich | USA |
| 2002 | Yokohama, Japan | Ahmed Okasha | Egypt | John Cox | U.K. |
| 2005 | Cairo, Egypt | Juan Mezzich | USA | John Cox | U.K. |
| 2008 | Prague, Czech Republic | Mario Maj | Italy | Levent Kuey | Turkey |
| 2011 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Pedro Ruiz | USA | Levent Kuey | Turkey |
| 2014 | Madrid, Spain | Dinesh Bhugra | U.K. | Roy Abraham Kallivayalil | India |
| 2017 | Berlin, Germany | Helen Herrman | Australia | Roy Abraham Kallivayalil | India |
| 2020 | Virtual | Afzal Javed | UK | Petr Morozov (until 2022) | Russia |
| 2023 | Vienna, Austria | Danuta Wasserman | Sweden | Saul Levin | USA |

## Structure

As of 2016, the institutional members of the World Psychiatric Association are 145 national psychiatric societies in 121 countries representing more than 250,000 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 66 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. WPA also self-publishes a quarterly newsletter on its website.
Several WPA scientific sections have their own official journals and newsletters:

### Journals

    Activitas Nervosa Superior (Psychiatric Electrophysiology Section)
    Archives of Women's Mental Health (Women's Mental Health Section)
    History of Psychiatry (History of Psychiatry Section)
    Idee in Psichiatria (Ecology, Psychiatry and Mental Health Section)
    International Journal of Mental Health (Psychiatric Rehabilitation Section)
    Journal of Affective Disorders (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 Disorders Section)
    Psychiatry in General Practice (Rural Mental Health Section)
    Psychopathology (Classification, Diagnostic Assessment and Nomenclature Section; Clinical Psychopathology Section)
    Revista de Psicotrauma (Disaster Psychiatry Section)
    Revue Francophone du Stress et du Trauma (Disaster Psychiatry Section)
    Transcultural Psychiatry (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)
    WPA eReview (WPA Quarterly eNewsletter)

## Activities

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