Future research needs to focus on understanding of resilience and formal and informal mental health delivery systems of care available in different Latin American countries. Such research has high potential for ameliorating the prevention and treatment of child and adolescent mental health problems in this region of the world.

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Culturally competent diagnostic systems are necessary for an effective and ethical clinical practice, as cultural diversity of patients increase around the world. Latin American psychiatrists hold a long-standing commitment to this enterprise. Recently, two main Latin American adaptations to the international psychiatric classification have emerged: the Cuban Glossary of Psychiatry, and the project of the Latin American Guide for Psychiatric Diagnosis (GLADP). Keeping ICD-10 as the basis for nosological organization, GLADP is being developed with contributions by mental health professionals from Latin American countries. GLADP comprises 4 parts: (1) historical and cultural framework, (2) comprehensive diagnosis and formulation, (3) psychiatric nosology and (4) appendixes.

To deal effectively with the understanding, description and classification of mental morbid conditions, we must address the intricate concept of disease, illness or disorder in mental health. To do so, one needs to consider biological, psychological and social frameworks. These levels of analysis can offer avenues for greater understanding of the bases of illness as well as better ways of formulating its description and classification. Conceptual, epistemological and empirical data analyses are relevant and necessary. All these efforts should be aimed at serving and advancing the main purposes of classification and diagnosis, the chief encompassing one being enhancement of clinical care and public health. Although no definition of mental disorder may strictly embrace every condition of concern, some flexible definitional guidelines within a biopsychosocial framework may be helpful for advancing psychiatric nosology.