As in most of the societies that have been studied, more than twice the number of Puerto Rican women compared to men suffer from diagnosed depression. The aim of this article is to examine depression in women in Puerto Rico from epidemiological, etiological, and especially, experiential perspectives. This study includes a comparison of women’s complaints around negative mood states in cases within the public mental health system and equivalent cases encountered within a traditional healing system, Espiritismo. Several general questions are raised concerning the effect on the etiology of depression of cultural constructions regarding female roles and statuses, reproductive events, and negative life events in general, as well as the value of closely examining the experience of depressed women relative to standard diagnostic assessments in mental health care.
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