International Review of Psychiatry

ISSN: 0954-0261 (Print) 1369-1627 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/iirp20

A brief panorama of Brazil’s contributions to

psychiatry

Alexander Moreira-Almeida & Fabrício H. A. Oliveira e Oliveira

To cite this article: Alexander Moreira-Almeida & Fabrício H. A. Oliveira e Oliveira (2017) A brief
panorama of Brazil’s contributions to psychiatry, International Review of Psychiatry, 29:3, 206-207,
DOI: 10.1080/09540261.2017.1285537

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2017.1285537

Published online: 07 Jun 2017.

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INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF PSYCHIATRY, 2017
VOL. 29, NO. 3, 206–207
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2017.1285537
EDITORIAL
A brief panorama of Brazil’s contributions to psychiatry
Given the increasingly globalized world, there has been
growing recognition of the importance of empirical data
and insights from a diversity of geographical and socio-
cultural backgrounds for a better psychiatric practice and
research. In order to foster this broadened perspective,
this issue of the International Review of Psychiatry con-
tains a selection of 10 papers reflecting several aspects of
the Brazilian contributions to psychiatry.
Brazil is a large country with a diversified cultural
background, whose population was basically formed by
European immigrants, native Americans, and Africans
who arrived as slaves, and also a considerable amount of
immigrants from the Middle East and East Asia.
Brazilian psychiatry has a growing relevance in the glo-
bal scenario. During the last decades, in parallel to the
economic growth, Brazil’s share in global scientific out-
put has also increased from 0.8% in 1995 to 2.7% in
2009 (Regalado, 2010). Specifically regarding psychiatry,
Brazil moved from 21st in 1996 to 13th position in 2015
in the Country Ranking of ‘psychiatry and mental health’
papers in the Scopus database (SCImago, 2016). This
expansion of Brazilian academic psychiatry seems to be
linked to the expansion in internationalization, increas-
ing number of MSc and PhD programmes, and more
stringent criteria for these post-graduation programmes
in Brazil (Gerolin, Bressan, Pietrobon, & Mari, 2010).
The Brazilian Psychiatric Association, founded in 1966,
currently has more than 7000 members and annually
promotes the Brazilian Congress of Psychiatry, with over
6000 attendees, being one of the largest Psychiatry con-
ferences in the world.
Reflecting rising quality and internationalization of
Brazilian psychiatric scientific output, three of the four
most influential Brazilian psychiatry journals started in
the last years to publish only papers in English and the
other journal publishes a mix of papers in Portuguese
and English. The journal RBP- Revista Brasileira de
Psiquiatria, published by the Brazilian Psychiatric
Association, holds the second higher impact factor (2.18)
among all Latin American scientific journals, being the
first among biomedical journals (JCR, 2015).
Since the more recent papers are now available in
English, this Brazilian production is more accessible
worldwide. However, there are many high quality previ-
ously published papers that still are only available in
Portuguese. We carefully prepared this special issue in
order to make some of these most relevant papers
ß 2017 Institute of Psychiatry and John Hopkins University
available to a wider audience. We used four criteria to
select the articles: (1) published in a Brazilian psychiatry
journal, (2) not previously published in English, (3)
higher Scopus citation and/or views at Scientific
Electronic Library Online – SciELO (www.scielo.br), and
(4) potential interest for readers worldwide (for this cri-
terion, we also consulted several leaders of Brazilian
psychiatry). In addition, we selected three historical
papers written by some of the founding fathers of
Brazilian psychiatry on topics of wide significance.
This issue of ‘Brazilian Psychiatry’ offers a diversity of
perspectives, spanning from empirical studies and review
papers, to methodological guidelines and theoretical
essays.
The three historical papers written by major figures
of early Brazilian psychiatry cover topics still relevant
today. Raimundo Nina-Rodrigues (1862–1906), a pioneer
in Brazilian Anthropology, Forensic Medicine, and
Psychiatry, used these three fields of knowledge to ana-
lyse mental contagion, cultural, social, and biological fac-
tors in ‘The madness epidemic of Canudos: Antonio
Conselheiro and the jagunços’. Juliano Moreira
(1873–1933) and Afr^anio Peixoto (1876–1947), in
‘Mental illnesses in tropical climates’, advocated for a
universalist view of mental disorders (cross-cultural val-
idity), rejecting views that mental disorders in the tropics
were of a different sort from those in cold climates like
Europe. Moreira was descended from enslaved Africans
and, under influence of Kraepelinian ideas, he directed
and humanized the ‘National Hospital for the Insane’ in
Rio de Janeiro and founded the first Brazilian journal in
the field of neuropsychiatry. Ulysses Pernambucano
(1892–1943), in ‘The social action of the psychiatrist’,
emphasizes the socioeconomic determinants of mental
disorders and the duty of psychiatrists’ advocacy for
patients’ needs.
Regarding the recent papers, from a more socio-
anthropological perspective, two papers investigate con-
cepts of mental disorder and stigma. Villares, Redko,
and Mari studied concepts of disease by relatives of
patients with schizophrenia. Still regarding schizophre-
nia, Guarniero, Bellinghini, and Gattaz investigated the
stigma in mass media.
Two papers are more clinically oriented. Nabuco and
Cangelli propose a cognitive-constructivist approach to
the challenging treatment of anorexia and bulimia nerv-
osa. Since Brazil faces a severe public health problem

related to substance use disorders, several high quality
research groups and clinical services were developed in
this field. In order to share the knowledge produced by
these groups, we also included the Guidelines of the
Brazilian Association of Studies on Alcohol and Other
Drugs (ABEAD) for diagnoses and treatment of psychi-
atric comorbidity with alcohol and other drugs
dependence.
The last three papers are more focused on research,
but also with relevant theoretical and clinical implica-
tions. Two articles deal with the interface between reli-
gion/spirituality and psychiatry/mental health, an area of
particular interest to the editors. This is a fast growing
field worldwide where Brazil has assumed a prominent
role (Damiano et al., 2016). Moreira-Almeida and
Lotufo-Neto present methodological guidelines for a
rigorous and open-minded scientific study of altered
states of consciousness and anomalous experiences, that
are so often found in spiritual experiences. Panzini and
Fleck provide a review of clinical and research implica-
tions of the interface between spirituality and quality-of-
life, two aspects related to what has been called ‘positive
psychiatry’. This perspective emphasizes a more compre-
hensive and patient-centred approach, not concerned
only with the mental imbalance, but also with the factors
promoting wellbeing and mental health. Still in the cut-
ting edge of research and knowledge in psychiatry is the
paper from Esperidi~ao-Antonio et al., providing a read-
able overview of the neurobiology of the emotions.
This special issue was only possible due to the collab-
oration and support of many. First, we would like to
thank the International Review of Psychiatry and espe-
cially its editor Professor Dinesh Bhugra for the chal-
lenging and exciting invitation to be the guest editors of
this issue. We also would like to express our gratitude to
several Brazilian psychiatry leaders who made sugges-
tions of papers to be included and to the authors who
quickly and gladly accepted our invitation to update,
translate, and include their articles. The journals that ori-
ginally published the papers also promptly and with
good will granted permission for this publication.
Regarding the historical papers, Clınica Jorge Jaber
funded the translations and Professor Ana Oda MD,
PhD, provided invaluable assistance in translation revi-
sion and in writing historical notes for each paper.
INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF PSYCHIATRY 207
Given the diversity of topics, perspectives, and the
quality of the authors, we are certain this special issue
on Brazilian Psychiatry makes available to a wider audi-
ence of psychiatrists and other health professionals
worldwide plenty of useful knowledge and insights to
improve mental healthcare and to advance research and
th understanding of the human mind, its functioning,
and disorders.
We wish all a pleasant, exciting, and useful read!
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors
alone are responsible for the content and writing of this
article.
References
Damiano, R.F., Costa, L.A., Viana, M.T.S.A., Moreira-Almeida, A.,
Lucchetti, A.L.G., & Lucchetti, G. (2016). Brazilian scientific
articles on “Spirituality, Religion and Health”. Archives of
Clinical Psychiatry, 43, 11–16. doi: 10.1590/0101-
60830000000073
Gerolin, J., Bressan, R.A., Pietrobon, R., & Mari, J.J. (2010). Ten-
year growth in the scientific production of Brazilian Psychiatry:
the impact of the new evaluation policies. Revista Brasileira De
Psiquiatria, 32, 6–10. doi: 10.1590/S1516-44462010000100004
JCR - Journal Citation Reports. (2015). Thomson Reuters.
Regalado, A. (2010). Science in Brazil. Brazilian science: riding a
gusher. Science, 330, 1306–1312. doi: 10.1126/science.330.6009.
1306
SCImago. (2016). SJR — SCImago Journal & Country Rank.
Retrieved from www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php
Alexander Moreira-Almeida
Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES),
School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora
(UFJF), Juiz de Fora, Brazil
Sections on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry of the
World and the Brazilian Psychiatric Association,
Juiz de Fora, Brazil
alex.ma@ufjf.edu.br
Fabrıcio H. A. Oliveira e Oliveira
Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES),
School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora
(UFJF), Juiz de Fora, Brazil