This viewpoint discusses a conference paper titled: “Epidemiological research on mental morbidity in Chile”, which summarizes a handful of studies from 1950s in Chile covering conditions such as alcoholism, psychosis, epilepsy, and neurosis. These were the first psychiatric epidemiological population studies conducted in the Southern hemisphere, but they are largely unknown globally. We argue that the Chilean studies have important implications for modern psychiatric epidemiology, as well as for related fields such as global mental health and mental health services research. This piece starts by describing the general sociopolitical context and presenting the main methodological features of the studies. It focuses then on three specific implications for the field: 1) promoting decoloniality in psychiatric epidemiology; 2) ensuring methodological rigor and feasibility; and 3) informing the development of mental health policy and services.

中文翻译：

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智利精神病学流行病学的早期发展：具有全球影响的当地历史

这种观点讨论了题为“智利精神疾病流行病学研究”的会议论文，该论文总结了 20 世纪 50 年代智利的一些研究，涵盖酗酒、精神病、癫痫和神经症等疾病。这是在南半球进行的首次精神病流行病学人群研究，但在全球范围内基本上不为人所知。我们认为，智利的研究对现代精神病学流行病学以及全球心理健康和心理健康服务研究等相关领域具有重要意义。本文首先描述一般社会政治背景并介绍研究的主要方法论特征。然后，它重点关注该领域的三个具体含义：1）促进精神病流行病学的非殖民性；2）确保方法的严谨性和可行性；3) 为精神卫生政策和服务的制定提供信息。