The World Health Organization's recent work on the lexicography of mental disorders

Standardization of nomenclature and terminology used in the field of mental health has been one of the main goals of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Mental Health Programme among recent activities undertaken to achieve this goal, is the development of definition and guidelines accompanying the chapter dealing with mental disorders in the tenth revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and of a set of instruments for the assessment of mental disorders. To enhance common understanding and uniformity of usage of the terms embedded in the classification and instruments and to facilitate their use in different cultures and settings, a series of lexica and glossaries has also been produced by WHO. The article describes the basic characteristics of the Lexicon of psychiatric and mental health terms, 2nd edition; Lexicon of alcohol and drug terms; Lexicon of crosscultural terms in mental health; SCAN glossary; and the ICD-10 symptom glossary for mental disorders.