Cross-Cultural Beliefs About "Depression"

Abstract

This study set out to compare native Britons' and Asian-Britons' (from the Indian sub-continent) beliefs about the causes and cures of depression. In all 152 females took part, half of whom were middle-aged and half young. The results indicated that middle-aged Asian migrants significantly differed from the middle-aged British and young Asian samples in their beliefs about depression and anti-depressive behaviour. They also scored significantly higher than the middle-aged British women on a Western measure of psychiatric morbidity, yet they did not report depression in themselves or others. The young Asian sample, on the other hand, appear to have adopted a perception of depression that is similar to that of their British peers. It seems that the perception of the causes and symptoms of depression and appropriate anti-depressive behaviour is mediated by cultural values and beliefs that the individual has been exposed to in their formative years, which subsequently affects their tendency to recognise, report and seek help for depression. The results are discussed in terms of the literature on the 'new cross-cultural psychiatry'.

Cultural Aspects of Depressive Experience and Disorders

“…Personal responsibility for depressive experience and disorder became the norm, and guilt, worthlessness, and failure became hallmarks of immoral character associated with depressive experience and disorder --it was a deficit, a lack, an inadequacy, a fault in personal determination. Furnham & Malik (1994) provide an interesting discussion of cultural variations in beliefs about depression in which they point out the cultural variations in ideas about etiology, expression, and consequence.…”

How Collectivism and Family Control Influence Depressive Symptoms in Asian American and European American College Students

“…They also illuminate cultural values, and assessing them allows us to test the practical relevance of assumed crosscultural differences, such as differences in individualism and collectivism (Furnham & Kuyken, 1991;Kuyken, Brewin, Power, & Furnham, 1992). In a study of middle-aged British women and age-matched female Indian immigrants to Britain, Furnham and Malik (1994) found that achievement failures (e.g., "plans aren't going to work out") were cited by British women as plausible causes of depression, while loss of control was more salient as a cause of depression for Indian women. This result fits,at least very broadly, with more individualistic ideation for the British women (that is, "my individual plans") vs. less ego-centered ideation for the Indian women (i.e., fearing inference by external agents or forces).…”

Percepção e expressão de sintomas depressivos em três grupos culturais catarinenses: açorianos, italianos e alemães

“…A presença de sintomas somáticos é também mais prevalente entre culturas em que os transtornos psiquiátricos carregam em si um grande estigma 21 . Nesses casos, o sofrimento psí-quico acaba por ser ignorado, escondido ou somatizado 18 . Sintomas cognitivo-afetivos seriam, então, mais prevalentes naquelas culturas em que existe menos inibição em referir sintomas afetivos 31 e nas comunidades em que existe comunicação verbal mais aberta e a expressão direta do sofrimento psíquico é mais bem aceita 20,32 .…”

“…Uma dessas diferenças, talvez a mais importante e já demonstrada por vários estudos [16][17][18][19][20] , é a predominância de sintomas somáticos em indivíduos de culturas orientais, enquanto os ocidentais a expressariam por meio de sintomas psíquicos e cognitivos. Entretanto, ainda há controvérsias neste sentido.…”