OBJECTIVES: The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) is a short, structured diagnostic interview, developed by psychiatrists and clinicians in the USA and Europe, for DSM-IV and ICD-10 psychiatric disorders. The objectives of our study were: (1) To determine if the psychiatric terms used in the M.I.N.I. are translatable worldwide, especially in non-western countries; and (2) To review strategies used to culturally adapt psychiatric terms. METHODS: We reviewed the records of all linguistic validation projects involving the M.I.N.I. RESULTS: We retrieved 67 language versions, representing 47 countries. The analysis of the translations’ content revealed three types of results, depending on the existence (or not) of corresponding psychiatric terminology in the target languages. The standard methodology (forward/backward and clinician review) was used in all countries and adapted, depending on the context. In all western and westernized countries (e.g., Europe, Russia, etc., totaling 49 languages), the psychiatric terms used in the M.I.N.I. were easily translated (i.e., existence of an agreed-upon corresponding terminology). In languages where psychiatric terms do not exist (e.g., certain Sub-Saharan languages), all the clinician-directed parts (titles and clinician-directed instructions/algorithms), which are capitalized in the original instrument, were left in English, and the patient-directed parts were translated in the target languages. In languages where there is a partially agreed-upon terminology (e.g., Thai), the titles as well as the algorithms were translated with corresponding English equivalents between brackets, when necessary. Moreover, in order to follow the typographical conventions of the M.I.N.I., in languages with no capital letters (such as Kannada or Malayalam), the translations used bigger font size. CONCLUSIONS: This review showed that terms used to describe psychiatric disorders had no equivalents in some countries, especially in Africa. Translation was not always possible and was even judged to be culturally and linguistically irrelevant in countries where psychiatry is only taught in English.