World Psychiatric Association

The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) is an international umbrella organisation of psychiatric societies. Originally created to produce world psychiatric congresses, it has evolved to hold regional meetings, to promote professional education and to set ethical, scientific and treatment standards for psychiatry.

Jean Delay was the first president of the organisation when it was started in 1950 and D. Ewen Cameron became the second president at the formal founding of the WPA in 1961. Juan E. Mezzich, MD, PhD is president as of 2005.

The institutional members of the WPA are 112 national psychiatric societies representing more than 150,000 psychiatrists worldwide. The societies are clustered into 18 Zones and 5 Regions: the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific. Representatives of the societies constitute the WPA General Assembly, the governing body of the organization. The WPA also has individual members and there are provisions for affiliation of other associations (e.g., those dealing with a particular topic in psychiatry).

The official publication of the WPA is World Psychiatry.

The WPA has helped establish a code of professional ethics for psychiatrists. The association has also looked into charges regarding China's treatment of the Falun Gong.