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Mental health services research: Lessons from the WHO-World Mental Health Surveys Initiative

Edited by Prof Daniel Vigo

As part of the new Mental Health Systems Planning Editorial Priority Area in International Journal of Mental Health Systems (IJMHS), we will showcase articles focused on mental health services stemming from the WHO-World Mental Health Surveys Initiative, the largest (and longest running) global research network collecting primary psychiatric epidemiology data. With data from more than 30 countries and 200,000 respondents, this Initiative (a collaboration between global researchers and WHO led by Ron Kessler at Harvard Medical School) has delivered close to a thousand peer-reviewed publications over 20 years. This Special Issue of the IJMHS will focus on papers specifically addressing mental health services research questions and is open to submissions from members of the WHO-WMHS initiative, including global, regional, and country-specific studies.


  1. Major depressive disorder (MDD) contributes to a significant proportion of disease burden, disability, economic losses, and impact on need of treatment and health care in Brazil, but systematic information abo...

    Authors: Mariane Henriques Franca, Chrianna Bharat, Ercole Novello, Irving Hwang, Maria Elena Medina-Mora, Corina Benjet, Laura Helena Andrade, Daniel V. Vigo and Maria Carmen Viana
    Citation: International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2023 17:19
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Most individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) receive either no care or inadequate care. The aims of this study is to investigate potential determinants of effective treatment coverage.

    Authors: Daniel V. Vigo, Alan E. Kazdin, Nancy A. Sampson, Irving Hwang, Jordi Alonso, Laura Helena Andrade, Olatunde Ayinde, Guilherme Borges, Ronny Bruffaerts, Brendan Bunting, Giovanni de Girolamo, Silvia Florescu, Oye Gureje, Josep Maria Haro, Meredith G. Harris, Elie G. Karam…
    Citation: International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2022 16:29
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Mental healthcare is delivered across service sectors that differ in level of specialization and intervention modalities typically offered. Little is known about the perceived helpfulness of the combinations o...

    Authors: Meredith G. Harris, Alan E. Kazdin, Richard J. Munthali, Daniel V. Vigo, Irving Hwang, Nancy A. Sampson, Ali Al-Hamzawi, Jordi Alonso, Laura Helena Andrade, Guilherme Borges, Brendan Bunting, Silvia Florescu, Oye Gureje, Elie G. Karam, Sing Lee, Fernando Navarro-Mateu…
    Citation: International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2022 16:6
    Content type: Research Published on: