On September 17, 2025, the National Health Commission officially issued the "Notice on the Addition of National Medical Centers for Mental Diseases and Regional Medical Centers," approving West China Hospital (WCH), Sichuan University as the main unit to establish the National Medical Center for Mental Diseases. This is the first comprehensive hospital in Western China to be approved as a national medical center and also the first national medical center of WCH. This approval not only affirms the comprehensive strength of WCH's psychiatry discipline but will also promote the further improvement of WCH's mental health and mental health service system.

 

The Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health of WCH was established in 1914. It is one of the earliest doctoral degree programs for psychiatry in China, one of the first bases in China to start standardized specialty training, and the first base for clinical pharmacology of psychotropic drugs in China. It also has the first research labs for psychiatric genetics and sleep, as well as the first teaching and research office for forensic psychiatry in China. WCH's psychiatry is one of the oldest and most profound disciplines in psychiatry and mental health in China.