Italian psychiatry and reform law: a review of the international literature.

Through the reform law, and the experiences of change realized prior to the reform, Italian psychiatry expanded its size and influences significantly. The aim of this review is to describe some issues relevant to Italian psychiatry and to try and evaluate the experience of reform as shown in international literature. In this literature, three large groups of contributions can be identified: the so called 'impressionistic' group; the group dealing with the analysis of local and regional situations; and finally the group represented by epidemiological researches and by analysis of national data. The main contributions of each of the three groups are reviewed, and finally the main problems which Italian psychiatry has to face, are outlined.