The state of the art of the research in mental health prevention in Brazil: A systematic review

It was done a systematic literature review to describe the state-of-the-art on mental health prevention in Brazil according to the stages of the preventive research cycle: analysis of the problem, risk and protective factors identification, pilot intervention, advanced test, effectiveness evaluation and diffusion. We found 41 31 articles of which 31 (0.75%) targeted on preventive programs and only 11 (35.4%) were systematically evaluated; the prevention focus of the programs were on antisocial behavior, peers rejection, violence and substance abuse. The studies are concentrated in the early stages of the research cycle, barely inexistent studies in the final stages. It is recommended the development of evaluation measures, dialogue between prevention and health promotion, strengthening of researches network and exchange with public policies for the progress of this field in Brazil.