Page < > of 2 - ZOOM Cultural Bound Syndromes Name Group Ataque de Nervios Hispanics Amok, Mal de Pelea Brain Fag Malaysians, Laotians, Filipinos, Polynesians, Papua New Guineans, Puerto Ricans African Americans Boufee Haitians Delirante Colera Hispanics Dhat East Indians, Chinese, Sri Lankans Anglo-Americans Dissociative Identity Disorder (1) Falling Out African Americans Ghost Sickness American Indians Hwa-byung Asians Koro Asians Description Out-of-consciousness state resulting from evil spirits. Symptoms include attacks of crying, trembling, uncon- trollable shouting, physical or verbal aggression, and intense heat in the chest moving to the head. These ataques are often associated with stressful events (e.g., death of a loved one, divorce or separation, or witnessing an accident including a family member). A dissociative disorder involving outburst of violence and aggression or homicidal behavior at people and ob- jects. A minor insult would precipitate this condition. Amnesia, exhaustion, and persecutory ideas are often associated with this syndrome. Problems with concentration and thinking among high school and university students experiencing the chal- lenges of schooling. Symptoms include head and neck pain, blurring of vision, burning and heat resembling Somatoform, Depressive, and Anxiety Disorder Sudden outburst of aggression, agitation associated with confusion, psychomotor excitement, and symp- toms resembling Brief Psychotic Disorder (including visual and auditory hallucinations, paranoid ideation). Anger and rage disturbing body balances leading to headache, screaming, stomach pain, loss of conscious- ness, and fatigue. Extreme anxiety associated with sense of weakness, exhaustion, and the discharge of semen. This disorder is considered a culture-specific syndrome because it primarily occurs in persons holding a "modern" set of cultural schemas. It involves the pre- sence of two or more identities where at least two recurrently take control of the person's behavior. Seizurelike symptoms resulting from traumatic events, such as robberies. Weakness, dizziness, fainting, anxiety, hallucinations, confusion, and loss of appetite resulting from the action of witches and evil forces. Pain in the upper abdomen, fear of death, tiredness resulting from the imbalance between reality and anger. A man's desire to grasp his penis (in a woman, the vulva and nipples) resulting from fear that it will retract into the body and cause death. + Cultural Bound Syndromes - 2 Page < Name Latah Group Asians Mal de ojo Hispanics African Americans, Hispanics Mal puesto, hex, root work, voodoo death Ode-ori Nigerians Description A sudden fright resulting in imitative behaviors that appear beyond control, including imitation of move- ments and speech; the individual often follows com- mands to do things outside his or her wish (e.g., verbal repetition of obscenities). Medical problems, such as vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and mental problems (e.g., anxiety, depression), could result from the mal de ojo (evil eye) the individual experienced from another person. The condition is com- mon among infants and children; adults might also experience similar symptoms resulting from this mal de ojo. Unnatural diseases and death resulting from the power of people who use evil spirits. Pibloktog Arctic and subarctic Inuit Susto, Miedo, espanto, pasmo Hispanics Taijin kyofusho Asians Wacinko American Indians Wind or Cold Illness Hispanics, Asians Sensation of parasites crawling in the head, feelings of heat in the head, paranoid fears of malevolent attacks by evil spirits. Excitement, coma, and convulsive seizures resembling an abrupt dissociative episode, often associated with amnesia, withdrawal, irritability, and irrational behav- iors, such as breaking furniture, eating feces, and ver- balization of obscenities. Tiredness and weakness resulting from frightening and startling experiences. Guilt about embarrassing others, timidity resulting from the feeling that the appearance, odor, facial expres- sions are offensive to other people. Feeling of anger, withdrawal, mutism, suicide from reaction to disappointment and interpersonal problems. A fear of cold and the wind; feeling weakness and susceptibility to illness resulting from the belief that natural and supernatural elements are not balanced. (1) Dissociative Identity Disorder is not recognized as a cultural-bound syndrome in DSM-IV although it was suggested that it might be a cultural syndrome due to the "recent relatively high rates of the disorder reported in the United States." (DSM-IV, 1994, p. 485) Modified from Paniagua, F.A. (2000). Culture-bound syndromes, cultural variations, and psychopathology, in I. Cullar & F.A. Paniagua, Eds., Handbook of multicultural mental health: Assessment and treatment of diverse populations (pp. 140-141). New York: Academic Press. 2 of 2 - ** ZOOM Cultural dome + 94