[Education and research on mental health in Latin America: priorities and implementation]

This paper is based on a presentation delivered at a PAHO Regional Meeting on Mental Health. It focuses mainly on research issues and is to be considered as a preliminary prospective exercise. From a biomedical perspective, research in Latin America appears to be limited, but it is not clear to what extent. Costly technology, and scarce funding, together with the assumption that this type of research is a privilege of rich countries, are serious disadvantages, and yet, it need to be further promoted. Methodology of clinical and social research has grown in complexity. That is likely to be one of the reasons why local efforts are rarely internationally competitive. But there are groups in the Region that have shown that this can be achieved. Training of competent investigators and innovative means to shorten the scientific and technologic gap that separate us from developed countries are urgent, as Latin America has the potential to do better in research.