Toward a new understanding of mental illness

A brief but fascinating talk from Thomas Insel,  Director of the National Institute of Mental Health:

Toward a new understanding of mental illness

On Being Sane In Insane Places

What happens when people who don't have a mental illness are admitted to hospital? This link will tell you what happened to eight pseudopatients:

On Being Sane In Insane Places

culturally bound syndromes

In preparation for our discussion on culture and mental health, here is something on culturally bound syndromes.

Culturally bound syndromes (Birx, 2006; Tseng, 2000) are combinations 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, and the disease is not recognized in other cultures. Examples are koro (Chowdhury, 1996; Fishbain, Barsky & Goldberg, 1989; Melechi, 2003; Schroer, 2006; Vaughan, 2002), Arctic hysteria or pibloktoq (Dick, 1995; Melechi, 2003), dhat (Jadhav, 2007), taijin kyofusho (Iwase, Nakao, Takaishi, Yorifuji, Ikezawa & Takeda, 2000; Melechi, 2003), hwa-byung (Park, Kim, Schwartz-Barcott & Kim, 2002), shenjing shuairuo (Lee, 1999; Lee & Wong, 1995), qi-gong psychotic reaction (Hwang, 2007), amok (Melechi, 2003; Williamson, 2007), windigo (Melechi, 2003; Rezneck, 1991; Teicher, 1956), susto (Mysyk, 1998; Rubel, O'Nell, & Collado-Ardâon, 1984; Weller, Baer, Garcia & Rocha, 2008), morgellons (Paquette, 2007), latah (Melechi, 2003) and mate Maori (Hiroa, 1910; Metge, 2004). The fact that these syndromes exist at all could be used to argue that psychiatry is inconsistent. Why should it be that some disorders only appear in some cultures if mental illness is a universal constant? (Rezneck, 1991).

References:

Birx, H.J. (2006). Encyclopedia of anthropology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

Chowdhury, A.N. (1996). The definition and classification of koro. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 20: 41-65.

Dick, L. (1995). “Pibloktoq” (Arctic hysteria): a construction of European-Inuit relations? Arctic Anthropology 32, 2, 1-42.

Fishbain, D.A., Barsky, S., & Goldberg, M. (1989). “Koro” (genital retraction syndrome): psychotherapeutic interventions. American Journal of Psychotherapy 43, 1, 87-91.

Iwase, M., Nakao, K., Takaishi, J., Yorifuji, K., Ikezawa, K., & Takeda, M. (2000). An empirical classification of social anxiety: Performance, interpersonal and offensive. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 54, 67-75.

Hiroa, T.R. (1910). Medicine amongst the Maoris, in ancient and modern times. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Hwang, W-C. (2007). Qi-gong psychotic reaction in a Chinese-American woman. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 31, 547-560.

Jadhav, S. (2007). Dhis and dhat: Evidence of semen retention syndrome amongst white Britons. Anthropology & Medicine 14, 3, 229-239.

Lee, S. (1999). Diagnosis postponed: Shenjing shuairuo and the transformation of psychiatry in post-Mao China. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 23, 349-380.

Lee, S., & Wong, K.C. (1995). Rethinking neurasthenia: The illness concepts of shenjing shuairuo among Chinese undergraduates in Hong Kong. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 19, 91-111.

Melechi, A. (2003). Fugitive minds: On madness, sleep and other twilight afflictions. London, England: Arrow Books.

Metge, J. (2004). Rautahi: The Maoris of New Zealand. London, England: Routledge.

Mysyk, A. (1998). Susto: An illness of the poor. Dialectical Anthropology 23, 187-202.

Paquette, M. (2007). Morgellons: Disease or delusions? Perspectives in Psychiatric Care 43, 2, 67-68.

Park, Y-J., Kim, H.S., Schwartz-Barcott, D., & Kim, J-W. (2002). The conceptual structure of hwa-byung in middle-aged Korean women. Health Care for Women International 23:389–397.

Rezneck, L. (1991). The philosophical defence of psychiatry. London, England: Routledge.

Rubel, A.J., O'Nell, C.W., & Collado-Ardâon, R. (1984). Susto – a folk illness. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Schroer, K. (2006). When size matters: Genital retraction syndromes in cultural perspective. Focus Anthropology. Retrieved on 6 November 2009 from http://www.focusanthro.org/archive/2005-2006.html

Teicher, M.I. (1956). Windigo psychosis: A study of a relationship between belief and behaviour among the Indians of northeast Canada. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

Tseng, W-S. (2000). Handbook of cultural psychiatry. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Vaughan (2002). Koro: a natural history of penis panics. Retrieved from http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/16/81843/6555

Weller, S.C., Baer, R.D., Garcia, J.C., & Rocha, A.L.S. (2008). Susto and nervios: Expressions for stress and depression. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 32, 406-420.

Williamson, T. (2007). Communicating amok in Malaysia. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 14, 341-365.

A victim of koro?

For those of you who do not have access to DSM-IV-TR, here is the list of culturally bound syndromes as per Appendix 1 of that publication:

amok; ataque de nervios; bilis; boufee delirante; brain fag; dhat; falling-out; ghost sickness; hwa-byung; koro; latah; locura; mal de ojo; nervios; pibloktoq; qi-gong psychotic reaction; rootwork; sangue dormido; shenjing shuairuo; shen-k'uei; shin byung; spell; susto; taijin kyofusho; zar.

Paris syndrome

Paris syndrome is a rare psychiatric phenomenon that is precipitated by visiting Paris, the capital city of France. Symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, feelings of persecution, depersonalisaion, derealisation, anxiety, dizziness, profuse sweating and tachycardia. Japanese tourists appear to be particularly susceptible.

Here's a short documentary on the syndrome:

Paris syndrome

famous eating disorder

Here's another full film for you. This one tells the story of Karen Carpenter (of The Carpenters), who had a severe eating disorder (anorexia nervosa). She died at age 32 from heart failure related to anorexia.

The Karen Carpenter Story

You too can be certified insane

For those of you who are not "normal", and let's face it normality is pretty boring, here's your own certificate of insanity. Pass it on to family, friends, your psychiatrist, whoever. The more of us who admit to being strange, the less the likelihood of discrimination against those with mental illness.

cough syrup

Just came across this cough syrup from days gone by:

It might not have cured your cough, but then you didn't really care if it did or not!