To the Editor:
November 2024 marked the twentieth anniversary of the inception of a mental health research initiative conducted jointly by public and private entities in Venezuela and Ecuador. This original and unprecedented initiative focused on non-neurodegenerative mental disorders, such as Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Recurrent Depressive Disorders, and similar conditions. The primary purpose of the research was to generate knowledge for the creation of a standardized, universally applicable method, in response to the significant epistemological and methodological deficiencies identified in the theories and processes by which Psychology and Psychiatry construct their diagnostic classifications.



