The social in psychiatries: Depression in Myanmar, China, and Japan

In the wake of new ways of calculating disease burdens through disability-adjusted life-years, depression emerged as the world's second most common disorder after cardiovascular disease, affecting more than 264 million people worldwide. In Asia, depression as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) has also become far more recognised and diagnosed over the past two decades. On the surface, this change seems to underline the universality of the neurobiological model of depression. Yet a closer look at experiences of depression in Myanmar, China, and Japan show the different ways in which the origins, rise, and treatment of depression are framed in specific sociopolitical contexts.