The suppression of depression as multimediation: Psychiatric diagnoses under Myanmar's military dictatorship

Myanmar has experienced decades of military dictatorship, civil wars, religious violence, economic crises, and natural disasters. While these conditions would suggest very high rates of depression and anxiety, government statistics report an exceptionally low depression rate of 0.00006%, compared to the global rate of 3.4%. This study combines analysis of epidemiological data, ethnographic observation of clinics, and in-depth interviews. I argue that Myanmar's low depression rates cannot be explained by the usual arguments about treatment gaps, lack of providers, or medication accessibility. Instead, I suggest that the military regime suppresses depression because it sees it as a form of political protest. While conditions like schizophrenia are readily diagnosed and treated as “purely biological,” mood disorders are suspect expressions of dissent. Through living value theory (LVT), I explore health as a process of multimediation. The dictatorship’s suppression of depression emerges as the strategic muting of medical interventions in favor of amplifying non-medical remediations.