title: Qualitative cross-sectional study of the perceived causes of depression in South Asian origin women in Toronto.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore how South Asian origin women in Toronto, Canada, understand and explain the causes of their depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional in-depth qualitative interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  Outpatient service in Toronto, Ontario.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten women with symptoms of depression aged between 22 and 65 years of age. Seven were from India, two from Sri Lanka and one from Pakistan. Four were Muslim, three Hindu and three Catholic. Two participants had university degrees, one a high school diploma and seven had completed less than a high school education. Eight were married, one was unmarried and one a widow.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three main factors emerged from the participant narratives as the causes of depression: family and relationships, culture and migration and socioeconomic. The majority of the participants identified domestic abuse, marital problems and interpersonal problems in the family as the cause of their depression. Culture and migration and socioeconomic factors were considered contributory. None of our study participants reported spiritual, supernatural or religious factors as causes of depression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A personal-social-cultural model emerged as the aetiological paradigm for depression. Given the perceived causation, psycho-social treatment methods may be more acceptable for South Asian origin women.
authors.affiliation: Social Aetiology of Mental Illness (SAMI) Training Program, Health Systems and Health Equity Research Group, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Samanthika
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ekanayake
authors.forename: Farah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Kwame
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McKenzie