Irrespective of the country where one practices or the particular population(s) that one works with, the likelihood is extremely high that as a psychiatric nurse, you will encounter depressed people. Interestingly, when one considers the state of the science this can be regarded as a somewhat counterintuitive situation. While the almost hyperbolic assertions that depression is a biological disease like any other biological disease continue, a more candid appraisal of the current state of the science indicates that it is disingenuous to make such claims. I sincerely hope that others will join in and contribute to this debate; our own ‘open-minded realism’ requires each of us to be receptive to a range of possibilities rather then reaching and practicing from the basis of premature epistemological conclusions regarding depression.