The authors compared depressive symptomatology & its sociocultural context across a Peruvian sample of 93 & a US sample of 64 adult depressive patients. The design involved the interview & evaluation of both groups by a bilingual investigator using Spanish- & English-language versions of the same assessment instrument. A basic commonality of core depressive symptoms & signs was found across samples, which also had similar levels of overall depressive severity. However, more complaints & higher scores on somatic symptoms & daily fluctuation of depression were seen in the Peruvian group, while the US group had higher scores on suicidal manifestations. (23 refs)