[Mental health laws and the psychiatric reform in Latin America: Multiple paths to its implementation]. / Leyes de Salud Mental y reformas psiquiátricas en América Latina: múltiples caminos en su implementación.

This paper describes and analyzes the psychiatric reform process in three Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile and Colombia) based on the Caracas Declaration of 1990. It compares the psychiatric reform processes in these three countries and highlights the role of national mental health laws in these processes. Our goal when investigating the experiences in other countries of Latin America is to draw conclusions for the Argentine psychiatric reform and for the future of such reforms in the region.

Application of the capability approach to Indigenous People's health and well-being: protocol for a mixed-methods scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Indigenous Peoples are subject to marginalisation, and experience systematic disadvantage in relation to health outcomes. Human development initiatives may help determine whether, and how, Indigenous Peoples are able to be agents of their own development and improve their health and well-being. This scoping review protocol outlines a process for synthesising the existing evidence that has applied the capability approach (CA) to Indigenous People's health and/or well-being. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A mixed-method scoping review is proposed including academic peer-reviewed publications and grey literature. Screening inclusion criteria will include Indigenous populations, using the CA approach to conceptualise health and/or well-being, and be available in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese. Publications that meet these criteria will undergo data extraction. Qualitative and quantitative data will be thematically and descriptively analysed and interpreted. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The proposed scoping review does not involve collecting data directly from Indigenous Peoples but will be based on previous research conducted within Indigenous settings. The current protocol and the proposed scoping review incorporate aspects of community involvement to guide the research process.This scoping review constitutes the first phase of a wider participatory action research project conducted with the Indigenous Kankuamo Peoples of Colombia. The findings of this review will be reported to local partners, published in a peer-reviewed journal and an executive summary will be shared with wider stakeholders. Within the wider project, the review will be considered alongside primary data to inform the development of tools/approaches of mental health and well-being for the Kankuamo communities.

La teoría de los delirios como falsas creencias y la convicción e incorregibilidad de los fenómenos psíquicos / The theory of delusions as false beliefs and the conviction and incorrigibility of psychic phenomena

Introducción: La teoría que presenta a los delirios como falsas creencias es la predominante en psiquiatría, al menos desde 1950. A su alrededor gira la definición propuesta en el DSM-IV. Cuando se examina con detenimiento se encuentra que de ella no se derivan explicaciones acerca del surgimiento, de los factores que los perpetúan y de la forma en que desaparecen los delirios. En el presente artículo se discute dicha teoría y se señala que cada uno de los aspectos allí mencionados tiene notorios problemas conceptuales, empíricos y pragmáticos. Método: Dado que caracterizar los delirios es muy difícil, se deja de lado aquello de que los delirios son creencias acompañadas de convicción e incorregibilidad y se analizan los fenómenos psicológicos relacionados con el pensamiento, la memoria, la percepción y la emoción, con el fin de ver en cuáles de ellos es posible hablar, al menos, de algo parecido a esos dos rasgos. Conclusión: Sólo en las percepciones somáticas y las emociones se puede encontrar convicción e incorregibilidad, por cuanto no hay ninguna prueba ni argumento intersubjetivamente aceptados que lleve a quien las experimenta a admitir un error en su contenido o en su aspecto cualitativo. Las percepciones somáticas y las emociones funcionan como los delirios y se constituyen en buenas candidatas para ser postuladas como los elementos básicos en su conformación...

Introduction: The theory of delusions as false beliefs is predominant in psychiatry at least since 1950. It is the basis for the definition proposed in the DSM IV. When discussed in detail it is found that explanations about emergence, perpetuating factors, and the way delusions disappear do not derive from this theory. The present article discusses this theory and finds that every item mentioned has notorious conceptual, empirical and pragmatic problems. Method: Considering that characterizing delusions is very difficult, the idea that they are beliefs accompanied by conviction and incorrigibility is put aside and instead, psychological phenomena associated with thinking, memory, perception and emotion are analyzed in order to see which of them has anything to say about something at least similar to these two traits. Conclusion: Only in somatic perceptions and emotions can incorrigibility and conviction be found in the sense that there is no intersubjective accepted evidence or argument that leads to whom experienced them to admit an error in content or in their qualitative aspect. Somatic perceptions and emotions function as delusions and they constitute good candidates to be nominated as key elements in shaping them...