Question

In 150 words what is your take on culture specific illness?

Answer 1

Illnesses that are exclusive to certain cultures are sometimes referred to as ‘culture specifuc syndromes’ .DSM-IV, defines it as ‘recurrent, locality-specific patterns of aberrant behavior and troubling experience’.

Many culture-bound syndromes are considered to be idiosyncratic expressions of anxiety and stress-related disorders. One of such illness is 'Dhat' which is seen in men from South Asia and involves sudden anxiety about loss of semen in the urine, whitish color urine, and sexual dysfunction combined with feelings of weakness and exhaustion. Its origin is traced in the Hindu belief that it takes forty drops of blood to create a drop of bone marrow, and forty drops of bone marrow to create a drop of semen, and thus that semen is a concentrated essence of life.
Second example of Koro is seen in men from Southwest Asia. Men affected by koro fear that their reproductive organ is retracting into their body and killing them. As a result, they go to great lengths to hold it outside their body, for example, by fastening it to sticks or pieces of furniture. Koro primarily occurs in the context of sexual guilt, often at night, and occasionally in local epidemics that resemble mass hysteria.

Various illness differ not only in its presentation but also in its recognition in society. Some of the culture even don't have name for depression and many such diseases in their local languages , making it unrecognisable.

PTSD are more common in West as evident from large no.of cases after WW2 but very less cases after 2004 tsunami in South Asia.

Thus, we can certainly say culture has a great role in illness ,including mental illnesses.