ICD‐11‐related educational activities
Authors: Luigi Giuliani
Journal: World Psychiatry (2021)

The chapter on mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders of the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), developed by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use of the World Health Organization (WHO), has been formally adopted by the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 25, 2019. The most significant innovations and changes in this chapter with respect to the ICD-10, and the most important differences from the DSM-5, have been presented in detail in a paper published in this journal1, while more specific differences concerning individual diagnostic groupings have been recently discussed elsewhere2, 3. The involvement of the WPA in the development of the chapter has been also described in previous reports4-6. Several issues debated in the process of the development of the chapter – including the role of a dimension­al approach as complementary to the categorical one, and the need for a further clinical characterization of the individual patient in addition to diagnosis in order to personalize management – have been addressed in this journal as well7-15. Educational courses focusing on various sections of the ICD-11 chapter on mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders have been held in connection with several WPA meetings, including the 18th, 19th and 20th World Congresses of Psychiatry (Mexico City, Mexico, September 27-30, 2018; Lisbon, Portugal, August 21-24, 2019; Bangkok, Thailand, March 10-13, 2021), and the Regional Congresses on “Interdisciplinary Understanding of Co-morbidity in Psychiatry: from Science to Integrated Care” (St. Petersburg, Russia, May 16-18, 2021) and “Psychopathology in Periods of Transition” (Kyiv, Ukraine, July 7-9, 2021). A more comprehensive online 20-hr training course has been organized by the Naples WHO Collaborating Centre on Research and Training in Mental Health and the European Psychiatric Association from 9 to 30 April, 2021. The course has been coordinated by G.M. Reed and M. Maj, and has covered all the main sections of the ICD-11 chapter on mental disorders. W. Gaebel, M. Cloitre, M. Maj, C.S. Kogan, P. Monteleone, M. Swales, J.B. Saunders and N.A. Fineberg composed the Faculty. The live course has been attended by 120 psychiatrists, selected from almost 500 applicants, representing 78 different countries. A further group of 250 psychiatrists have had access to the course on demand. A training course with exclusive access to the members of the WHO Global Clinical Practice Network (https://gcp.network) has been recently set up by the WHO Collaborating Centre at Columbia University, in collaboration with the WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Use. The course consists of 15 online training units, each focusing on a different disorder grouping and taking from one to one and a half hours. Each unit provides a description of the relevant diagnostic grouping and the main innovations with respect to the ICD-10. Knowledge check questions are provided to ensure comprehension. Participants have the opportunity to practice by applying diagnostic guidelines to clinical case examples. This training course is going to be available also in Spanish, and additional translations are planned. A WHO International Advisory Group on Training and Implementation for ICD-11 Mental, Behavioural and Neurodevelopmental Disorders has been established to develop and evaluate educational, training and implementation processes related to the ICD-11 in various countries. WPA former officers who contributed to the development of the ICD-11 chapter on mental disorders, such as M. Maj and W. Gaebel, are members of this Advisory Group.