Mental health and work: description of the academic production in the Brazilian postgraduate

Abstract

This study describes the academic production of the Mental health and work area in the Brazilian postgraduate. From a qualitative perspective, a biographic research was done with documents available on bank theses and dissertations from CAPES and BVS-PSI. The results indicate that the area has been studied essentially at Master's level; 84% of them are dissertations and 16% are theses. The first documents dates back to 1989. Since 2000 the production increased considerably: 88% of the material is from that period. 56% of these documents are related to Psychology: The Southeast region concentrates 46% of the total and São Paulo responds to 30%, indicating a large concentration of studies in this area of the country. It also identifies that 49 institutions presents study productions, and USP, UFRJ, UFRGS, UNB and UFMG are the most contributors. According to all this, we can conclude that the area of Mental health and work emerges from the socio-historical context in which developed the field of the workers' Health in Brazil. The production in higher number from public universities seems to indicate an ethical and political commitment of these institutions in response to social problems that require scientific research.