The classification of mental illness in China before the reform and opening up was influenced by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, with a triad of neurasthenia, hysteria and obsessive-compulsive neurosis, so that neurasthenia was the medical name often used. After the reform and opening up, Chinese psychiatrists gradually accepted the Western viewpoint emphasizing depression (Chen Jianmei, 2011) and followed the West in institutionalizing the construct of depression, and the Chinese Classification and Diagnostic Criteria of Mental Disorders (CCMD The Chinese Classification and Diagnostic Criteria of Mental Disorders (CCMD) defines depression mainly after the ICD and with reference to the DSM.
The low number of health care professionals associated with mental illness in China is affecting the social construction. Although Chinese people are now more aware of depression, as Dr Gu Xiuling of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, affiliated with Capital Medical University, notes, "In the late 1980s, our hospital received 7-8 patients a day (for depression), but now there are about 100 a day".11 However, by 2011, there were only about 20,000 registered psychiatrists nationwide, and only 100,000 per 100,000 people. However, by 2011, there were only about 20,000 registered psychiatrists nationwide, with only 1.46 psychiatrists per 100,000 people, which is only a quarter of the international standard, and the capacity of medical services for mental illness is seriously inadequate.12 In 2011, Mao Yu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, mentioned that Beijing had the highest proportion of medical staff and beds in its mental illness department in the country, while there were less than 1,000 doctors and less than 2,000 nurses. The reasons for this are, on the one hand, "the limited supply of psychiatrists and the long training cycle, coupled with the fact that people tend to be prejudiced against psychiatrists, and are less enthusiastic about practising because of the low income and treatment than other specialists";13 on the other hand, psychiatrists are highly specialised, irreplaceable and universally available. There are also few nursing staff working in the psychiatric field, as they can be harmed by the severely mentally ill at any time.14 Most Chinese depressed patients only have access to professional psychiatrists and specialists in major cities. 88% of people with mental disorders did not receive professional treatment between 2001 and 2005. 2012 reported that there were 30 million or more depressed patients who had not yet sought medical treatment The rate of non-attendance was 62.9%.15 According to a 2009 survey by the Shanghai Mental Health Centre, less than half of those with previously identified depression had received professional treatment in the six months prior to the survey.
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