YOKOHAMA -- Psychiatrists from around the world on Monday adopted a declaration calling on represented countries to provide the best available treatment for those with mental illnesses.

The "Yokohama Declaration" was adopted on the evening of the third day of the 12th World Congress of Psychiatry, which is currently under way at the Pacifico Yokohama convention hall.

The statement recommends that all member societies of the World Psychiatric Association, the congress organizer, do their best to provide adequate and comprehensive treatment for mental patients.

It also asks that each member society help these patients exercise their right to live productive and meaningful lives, improve training and education in mental health issues and relieve health-related burdens on patients and their families.

The draft of the declaration was mapped out by the Japan Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, which represents Japanese societies active in mental-health related fields.

Lack of adequate psychiatric treatment has been a particularly serious problem in developing countries, according to congress officials.

The Japanese society also agreed to officially change the Japanese translation of schizophrenia from "seishin bunretsu byo," which literally means "split-mind disease," to "togo shitcho sho," roughly meaning "integration disorder syndrome."

The move is aimed at eradicating the stigma attached by the current term.

A Japanese representative said he also wants to call on English-speaking countries to change the English term "schizophrenia," which was coined more than 100 years ago and is medically obsolete.

On the third day of the international conference, more than 60 symposiums and other events highlighted the latest studies on mental illnesses and developments in psychiatry.

One report suggested that gene-related disorders play a key role in the causes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Also attracting attention were studies on genetic research seeking to pinpoint the genes responsible for schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.