In this week's PLoS Medicine Taghi Yasamy from the WHO, Geneva, Switzerland and colleagues identify challenges facing good mental health research governance in low- and middle-income countries and provide suggestions for a way forward. The authors recognize the need to establish the general orientation of mental health research to deal with problems such as organizational structure, research prioritization and relatively limited capacity and resources, and to balance expensive research with assessment of services and resources using low-cost methods.
The authors state: "Low resource countries face a range of challenges that leads to little or inappropriate research. They need to use their limited financial and human resources for mental health research as effectively as possible. They need sound governance of their mental health research to achieve this."
Funding: No specific funding was received for this article.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. MTY, MVO, and SS are WHO employees, they are responsible for the views expressed in this publication, and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy, or views of the World Health Organization.
Citation: Yasamy MT, Maulik PK, Tomlinson M, Lund C, Van Ommeren M, et al. (2011) Responsible Governance for Mental Health Research in Low Resource Countries. PLoS Med 8(11): e1001126. doi:10.1371/journal. pmed.1001126
CONTACT:
Taghi Yasamy
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse,
World Health Organization
Geneva, CH-1211
Switzerland
yasamym@who.int
PLOS Medicine