What are some examples of culture-bound syndromes?
Some examples of culture-bound syndromes currently identified in the global community include Dhat syndrome, Zar, and Susto. Dhat syndrome is a condition found in the cultures of the Indian subcontinent in which male patients report that they suffer from premature ejaculation or impotence, and believe that they are passing semen in their urine.
What is the new name for culture bound syndrome?
In 2013, the DSM 5, dropped the term culture-bound syndrome, preferring the new name “Cultural Concepts of Distress”. The fourth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classifies the below syndromes as culture-bound syndromes:
What is the difference between culture specific and culture bound syndromes?
Some culture-specific syndromes involve somatic symptoms (pain or disturbed function of a body part), while others are purely behavioral. Some culture-bound syndromes appear with similar features in several cultures, but with locally specific traits, such as penis panics .
Is kufungisisa a culture-bound syndrome?
For example, in the DSM-5, it says that the culture-bound syndrome Kufungisisa (found among the Shona of Zimbabwe) is related to 6 different (Western) psychiatric diagnoses. Also, sometimes illnesses similar to a certain culture-bound syndrome are found in other cultures as well.
What are cultural bound syndromes?
Abstract. Culture-bound syndrome is a broad rubric that encompasses certain behavioral, affective and cognitive manifestations seen in specific cultures. These manifestations are deviant from the usual behavior of the individuals of that culture and are a reason for distress/discomfort.
What are culture-bound syndromes and provide at least one example?
Culture-bound disorders may involve somatic expressions (e.g., temporary loss of consciousness or involuntarily clenched teeth), cognitions (e.g., a belief that one's genitals are retracting into the body or a conviction that one has been abducted by extraterrestrial beings), or behaviors (e.g., extreme startle ...
What are the symptoms of culture-bound syndrome?
Ataque de nervios, seen in Latin American and Latin Mediterranean cultures, is associated with a sense of being out of control, uncontrollable shouting, trembling, crying, heat in the chest rising to the head, and fainting or seizure-like episodes, and somewhat resembles panic disorder.
Is ADHD a culture-bound syndrome?
Due to this, ADHD can be argued to be a culture bound syndrome. A culture bound syndrome is defined as a “recurrent, locality-specific pattern of aberrant behavior and troubling experience” by the DSM-IV-TR(1). Generally, these syndromes occur in specific cultures.
Is anorexia nervosa a culture-bound syndrome?
Anorexia nervosa is presently considered a Western culture-bound syndrome. A cultural focus on dieting and ideals of thinness for women are assumed to be implicated in the disorder.
What are 5 culture-bound syndromes?
Culture-bound syndromes include, among others, amok, amurakh, bangungut, hsieh-ping, imu, jumping Frenchmen of Maine syndrome, koro, latah, mal de pelea, myriachit, piblokto, susto, voodoo death, and windigo psychosis. Also called culture-specific syndrome.
How is culture-bound syndrome treated?
Suggested approaches, include psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral interventions, relaxation techniques, and social skills development (Min, 2004). A community-based, culturally tailored nursing intervention is particularly effective in treating Hwa-Byung.
Is depression a culture-bound syndrome?
Psychiatry must recognize the cultural causes of depression and make cultural expertise an essential element of its therapeutic arsenal. Depression is a culture-bound syndrome.
What is a Culture-Bound Syndrome?
The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition), which is the official handbook of psychiatric disorders, calls these illnesses “cultural concepts of distress.” Culture-bound syndromes may also be referred to as “folk illnesses” or “culture-specific disorders.”
Where are cultures similar to Kufungisisa?
For example, illnesses similar to Kufungisisa have been found in parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, along with some East Asian and Native American groups.
What is the name of the disease that affects the polar eskimo?
Pibloktoq is an illness found among the Polar Eskimo and is also known as “arctic hysteria.” This illness affects mostly adult women. It has many possible symptoms, which include tearing off clothing, running through the snow, and talking nonsense. Afterward, the affected person is exhausted and may sleep for a long time.
Does culture bound syndrome match up with any disorder?
And, a culture-bound syndrome does not match up exactly with any disorder listed in the DSM handbook. So, a culture-bound syndrome can involve parts of multiple different psychiatric diagnoses. For example, in the DSM-5, it says that the culture-bound syndrome Kufungisisa (found among the Shona of Zimbabwe) is related to 6 different (Western) psychiatric diagnoses.
Can culture bound syndromes be assimilated into the categories of mental illness?
Some people think that culture-bound syndromes can be assimilated into the categories of mental illness that Western biomedicine has created. Other people think that the Western categories of mental illness are just a product of Western culture and should not be applied to the illnesses of other cultures.
What is a culture bound syndrome?
In medicine and medical anthropology, a culture-bound syndrome, culture-specific syndrome, or folk illness is a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that are considered to be a recognizable disease only within a specific society or culture. There are no objective biochemical or structural alterations of body organs or functions, ...
Why is culture bound syndrome controversial?
The term culture-bound syndrome is controversial since it reflects the different opinions of anthropologists and psychiatrists. Anthropologists have a tendency to emphasize the relativistic and culture-specific dimensions of the syndromes, while physicians tend to emphasize the universal and neuropsychological dimensions.
Why are culture bound syndromes acceptable?
an ataque de nervios at a funeral in Puerto Rico) to express distress in the wake of a traumatic experience.
What is the term for a behavior that can be attributed to certain behavior patterns within a specific culture?
More broadly, an endemic that can be attributed to certain behavior patterns within a specific culture by suggestion may be referred to as a potential behavioral epidemic. As in the cases of drug use, or alcohol and smoking abuses, transmission can be determined by communal reinforcement and person-to-person interactions. On etiological grounds, it can be difficult to distinguish the causal contribution of culture upon disease from other environmental factors such as toxicity.
What is the trance-like violent behavior of the Viking -age Berserkers?
The trance-like violent behavior of the Viking -age berserkers — behavior that disappeared with the arrival of Christianity — has been described as a culture-bound syndrome.
Is penis panic a culture-bound disease?
Some culture-bound syndromes appear with similar features in several cultures, but with locally specific traits, such as penis panics . A culture-specific syndrome is not the same as a geographically localized disease with specific, identifiable, causal tissue abnormalities, such as kuru or sleeping sickness, or genetic conditions limited ...
Do refugees in Sweden fall into comas?
Refugee children in Sweden have been known to fall into coma-like states on learning their families will be deported. The condition, known in Swedish as uppgivenhetssyndrom, or resignation syndrome, is believed to only exist among the refugee population in the Scandinavian country, where it has been prevalent since the early part of the 21st century. In a 130-page report on the condition commissioned by the government and published in 2006, a team of psychologists, political scientists, and sociologists hypothesized that it was a culture-bound syndrome.
What is culture bound syndrome?
The culture bound syndrome is the psychological or corporal characteristics in a group of people belonging to a certain culture, race, or place.
Why do people in the Arctic have artic hysteria?
We western science says that it is due to the lack of sunlight for the people of this region, which becomes negligible in winters. Also, they attribute the eating of animals like the polar bears with the artic hysteria because their liver is very rich in Vitamin-A and it can cause Hypervitaminosis A, while traditionally this has been associated with spirits and holy revelations.
What is the emphasis on folktales?
In most of the society outside the developed world, there is a strong emphasis on folk-tales, evil eye, black magic , and other beliefs, which are called manufactured by the world of science. The people of these places hold certain ceremonies and label them holy. If by the disruption of nature, like rain or a hail storm, if these ceremonies don’t take place then the psychological effect it has on the people of that place are widespread and it is hard for them to recover from it objectively unless and until an antidote in that culture is performed.
Is the internet bound to one region?
No, it is not bound to one region. Since the inception of the internet, people now have seen a world beyond their origin, and there have been many emphases placed on immigration. People move from one country to another, seeking a different life and new opportunities, but with them, they carry their roots, and part of their upbringing is the culture-bound syndrome.
Why is culture bound syndrome controversial?
The term culture-bound syndrome is controversial since it reflects the different opinions of anthropologists and psychiatrists.
What is a culture bound disorder?
In medicine and medical anthropology, a culture-bound syndrome, culture-specific syndrome, or folk illness is a combination of psychiatric (brain) and somatic (body) symptoms that are considered to be a recognizable disease only within a specific society or culture. There are no objective biochemical or structural ...
Why has the emphasis on the expression of symptoms and sources of distress changed?
Rather than disorders being confined to specific cultures, the emphasis has changed to better recognition of the expression of symptoms and sources of distress within each culture in order to improve healthcare and treatment.
Is a culture specific syndrome purely behavioral?
Some culture-specific syndromes involve somatic symptoms (pain or disturbed function of a body part), while others are purely behavioral.
Overview
Other examples
Though "the ethnocentric bias of Euro-American psychiatrists has led to the idea that culture-bound syndromes are confined to non-Western cultures", a prominent example of a Western culture-bound syndrome is anorexia nervosa.
Within the contiguous United States, the consumption of kaolin, a type of clay, has been proposed as a culture-bound syndrome observed in African Americans in the rural south, particularly in ar…
Identification
A culture-specific syndrome is characterized by:
1. categorization as a disease in the culture (i.e., not a voluntary behaviour or false claim);
2. widespread familiarity in the culture;
3. complete lack of familiarity or misunderstanding of the condition to people in other cultures;
Medical perspectives
The American Psychiatric Association states the following:
The term culture-bound syndrome denotes recurrent, locality-specific patterns of aberrant behavior and troubling experience that may or may not be linked to a particular DSM-IV diagnostic category. Many of these patterns are indigenously considered to be "illnesses," or at least afflictions, and most have local names. Although presentations conforming to the major DSM-IV …
Globalisation
Globalisation is a process whereby information, cultures, jobs, goods, and services are spread across national borders. This has had a powerful impact on the 21st century in many ways including through enriching cultural awareness across the globe. Greater level of cultural integration is occurring due to rapid industrialisation and globalisation, with cultures absorbing more influences from each other. As cultural awareness begins to increase between countries, t…
See also
• Cross-cultural psychiatry
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Cultural competence in healthcare
• Mass psychogenic illness
Further reading
• Kleinman, Arthur (1991), Rethinking psychiatry: from cultural category to personal experience, New York: Free Press, ISBN 978-0-02-917441-8, retrieved 8 January 2011
• Landy, David, ed. (1977), Culture, Disease, and Healing: Studies in Medical Anthropology, New York: Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-02-367390-0
External links
• Psychiatric Times – Introduction to Culture-Bound Syndromes(registration required)
• Skeptical Inquirer – Culture-bound syndromes as fakery