Since the 1980s, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Consortium inPsychiatric Epidemiology (ICPE) have increasingly measured the state of populations' mentalhealth using large-sample surveys with standardised measures and methods. However,psychiatric epidemiology and cultural psychiatry are constantly faced with a problem: why ismental illness, or why are some mental illnesses, more prevalent in certain societies than inothers? How can we explain, for example, the cultural differences in the prevalence of depression: 1.5% in Taiwan and 19% in Lebanon? Do certain cultures protect mental healthmore than others?
