OBJECTIVE: To understand the sociocultural meanings of childhood depression, from the medical-scientific concept of the disease. METHODS: This was a qualitative study carried out in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2003. It consisted of ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews with eight psychiatrists from a public health service and nine relatives (parents or guardians) of children who had been diagnosed with and were being treated for childhood depression. The analysis sought to identify categories that would make it possible to isolate different notions of the disease, as expressed in the discourse of these groups. RESULTS: Different notions of the disease were identified, in accordance with the cultural patterns of the discourse. For the psychiatrists, the concept of childhood depression was related to inappropriate child behavior, or "bad functioning", which then had to be adjusted by medical intervention. For the relatives, childhood depression meant "dissatisfaction" and "discomfort" with life and "intolerance" of adults to child behavior. It was seen that the discourse of the psychiatrists and relatives interviewed showed great diversity of subjects, concepts and categories, according to the logic of their particular understandings and explanations for childhood depression. CONCLUSIONS: In the light of the results obtained, the phenomenon of childhood depression can be analyzed not as an event determined by medical-scientific knowledge, but as a dynamic process of "creative reinvention" of categories and concepts that are fundamental to this discourse. It is therefore concluded that childhood depression presents as a differentiated disease, in the form of a broad category that is capable of integrating different connotations and contexts under the same term.
Anthropology, cultural; Depression; Qualitative research; Mental health; Child welfare