我国有关抑郁症的分类学统计,从已公开发表的资料来看,与其他国家的数据差距殊远。这一显著的差距,引起很多外国同道的关注与兴趣,部分同道从我国的历史-社会文化背景来研究这一差距,大致认为我国的民族传统特点发挥着重要影响;不言而喻,其前提是肯定我国抑郁症患者大大少于其他国家这一事实。我们认为,历史-文化背景是可以导致精神疾病患病率的差异,这正是跨文化精神病学的重要理论基础。第二次世界大战前,卡拉瑟斯(Caruthers)曾断言生活在传统非洲环境的黑人,不存在抑郁症状,当时风行一时,作为历史-文化因素这一设想的有力 The taxonomic statistics on depression in China show that there is a long way to go before the data from other countries are published. This significant disparity has aroused the concern and interest of many foreign fellow citizens. Some fellow citizens study this gap from the historical-socio-cultural background in our country and generally think that the traditional national characteristics of our country play an important role. It goes without saying that the premise Is to affirm the fact that there are significantly fewer patients with depression in our country than in other countries. In our opinion, the historical-cultural background is the difference that can lead to the prevalence of mental illness, which is an important theoretical basis for intercultural psychiatry. Prior to the Second World War, Caruthers had asserted that blacks living in traditional African environments had no depressive symptoms and prevailed at the time as a powerful element of the historical-cultural element