Latin American and Spanish-speaking perspectives on the challenges of global psychiatry.

The multi-faceted phenomenon known as globalization has a particular impact on the conceptual and practical development of mental health disciplines in general, and psychiatry in particular, across different world regions. To be theoretically and functionally effective, global psychiatry requires an integration of its different components. To such objective, and after a brief review of continental European and Anglo-Saxon contributions, this article examines the history, characteristics, and contributions of Latin/Iberian American and Spanish-speaking psychiatry, in order to substantiate its role in world psychiatry.

Bioethical dimensions of cultural psychosomatics: the need for an ethical research approach.

Contemporary psychosomatics is a research-based technical discipline and its social power depends on how scientific knowledge is obtained and applied in practice, considering cultural contexts. This article presents the view that the dialogical principles on which bioethical discourse is based are more inclusive than professional ethics and philosophical reflection. The distinction is advanced between rule-guided behavior and norm-justifiable acts (substantiation and justification).

Ethics in psychosocial and biomedical research - A training experience at the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics (CIEB) of the University of Chile().

This paper reviews the experience in training Latin American professionals and scientists in the ethics of biomedical and psychosocial research at the Interdisciplinary Center for Studies in Bioethics (CIEB) of the University of Chile, aided by a grant from Fogarty International Center (FIC) - National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2011. In these 10 years of experience, 50 trainees have completed a 12-month training combining on-line and in-person teaching and learning activities, with further support for maintaining contact via webmail and personal meetings. The network formed by faculty and former trainees has published extensively on issues relevant in the continent and has been instrumental in promoting new master level courses at different universities, drafting regulations and norms, and promoting the use of bioethical discourse in health care and research.

THE TOPIC OF RESEARCH INTEGRITY IN LATINAMERICA.

Present article narrates the experience of trainees of the ethics of biomedical and psychosocial research program of the Interdisciplinary Center for studies on bioethics (CIEB) of the University of Chile on the topic of research integrity in Latin America. The following problems are covered: integrity of publications, reporting of scientific research misconduct, definitions of research integrity, scientific ethical review committees functioning, international multi-centric clinical trials monitoring and norms for scientific integrity and ethical oversight.

Psychiatry and human rights in Latin America: ethical dilemmas and the future.

This paper addresses the context in which ethical and human right issues as they pertain to psychiatry are discussed in Latin America. Dependency and institutional instability are singled out as pervading characteristics influencing the analysis of issues and the design of mental health policies. According to the landmark 1990 Declaration of Caracas all countries in the region have progressed towards implementing measures designed to improve the condition of the populations regarding mental health care and research.

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OBJECTIVE: To establish a diagnosis of the insertion of bioethics, ethics and humanistic values and attitudes to the program of the Medical School of ESCS - Escola Superior em Ciências da Saúde, public school of medicine, Distrito Federal, Brazil, in order to contribute to the process of curricular management. METHODOLOGY: The study is cohorte and documental. Thirty-two indicators to the thematic on ethics and twenty-four related to humanization were utilized.

Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Human Beings In Brazil: Diagnosis of Research Ethics Committee.

OBJECTIVE: Diagnose ethical conduct in research involving human beings in Brazil and the last 10 years of activity by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Health Department - Federal District - CEP/SES/DF. METHODS: This work was based on a documentary research, descriptive and retrospective. It examined the database containing records of cases brought before the CEP/SES/DF, corresponding the period of June 1997 to December 2007.

Bioethics and animal research: a personal perspective and a note on the contribution of Fritz Jahr.

Reviewing fundamental aspects of bioethics and outlining the work of the Bioethics Program of the Pan American Health Organization, this paper draws attention to the work of a forgotten pioneer- Fritz Jahr- who coined the term bioethics in 1927 and anticipated many of the arguments and discussions now current in biological research involving animals.

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The objective of this article is to relate the experience of the Research Ethics Committee of the Secretary of Health, Federal District, Brazil (CEP/SES/DF) during 10 years (1997-2007) from its creation. It deals with a descriptive and documentary evaluation, in the form of case studies, utilizing all projects subject to protocol in CEP/SES/DF (Number 052/08) during that period.The most frequent conflicts were: terms of free and informed consent (30%), identification page (25%), methodology (20%), curriculum vitae (12%), budget (9%), others (4%).

Ethics in psychiatry: a framework.

Defining bioethics as the rational use of dialogue in the formulation, justification, and application of ethical principles, with the aim ofgenerating good practices in research, clinical practice, and advocacy, this paper focuses on methods for bioethical deliberation relevantto psychiatry. Stressing that bioethics fuses the two main ethical traditions in Western thought, the deontological and the teleological, thepaper emphasizes the three conditions that any intervention, if considered in the context of bioethics, should fulfil: it should be appropriateto the problem at hand, it should be good (in the sense that it does good to those who receive it but also to those who perform it),and it should be just (in the sense that its outcomes can be generalized to the whole of society). Some implications of these notions for thepractice and teaching of psychiatry are presented.

[Information, communication, and equity: dilemmas in health].

Equity, which is a form of justice, is the absence of inequalities that are evitable or unjust or that stem from preventable causes. In the area of health, it is linked to prudence that should prevail in the exercise of the health professions. Information, like any other social commodity, can be distributed in an inequitable way among different groups or populations due to technological barriers or cultural factors.