History

Our History

Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría was founded after the Civil War, in 1940, by Juan José López Ibor (1906-1991) when he was living in Madrid after finishing his training in France and Germany. The following year, the Journal changed its name to Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría y Neurología, as, at the time, psychiatry and neurology were closely linked. Indeed, López Ibor and his school have always considered these areas related fields. In 1944, he went into exile and lost some of his privileges, including the right to direct doctoral theses or edit publications. As a result, the Journal became international and was known as Actas Luso-Españolas de Psiquiatría y Neurología, directed by Prof. Henrique J. Barahona Fernandes, then a professor at the University of Lisbon. A few years later, Jose Leme Lopes, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Rio de Janeiro, joined the Board of the Journal. At the beginning of the 1970s, coinciding with the birth of neuroscience, the Journal again changed its name by adding "y ciencias afines" (and related sciences) in order to complement psychiatry and neurology with ideas from associated disciplines. In 1979, Juan José López-Ibor joined the Board, where he remains until 1991.

In 1998, for a series of reasons, the Journal regained its original name. On the one hand, the number of neurology (and related sciences) journals had increased, as had the number of publications in Portuguese. Most of the Journal's readers are Spanish-speaking. It was also decided that original articles would be published in parallel in English. In 2010, the Fundación Juan José López-Ibor took over the running of the Journal in order to maintain the continuity that until then had been threatened by editorial differences. Since its beginnings, Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría has remained independent of associations, societies, and groups that could have used the Journal for their own ends. The current formula has provided the Journal with a considerable degree of independence and continuity and, therefore, the ability to provide a better service to all those who are interested in psychiatry and its scientific development.