Culture and somatization: Clinical, epidemiological, and ethnographic perspectives

Psychosomatic Medicine

Volumn 60, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 420-430

  Kirmayer, Laurence J ^a   Young, Allan ^a  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

Culture; Help seeking; Illness behavior; Immigrants; Somatization; Somatoform disorders

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CANADA; CULTURAL FACTOR; DISEASE CLASSIFICATION; DISTRESS SYNDROME; ETHNOLOGY; HEALTH BEHAVIOR; HEALTH CARE ACCESS; HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION; HUMAN; IMMIGRANT; PREVALENCE; PRIMARY MEDICAL CARE; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SOCIAL ASPECT; SOMATIZATION;

EID: 0031928127     PISSN: 00333174     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1097/00006842-199807000-00006     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. Kirmayer LJ: Culture, affect and somatization. Transcult Psychiatr Res Rev 21:159-188; 237-262, 1984
2. Lipowski ZJ: Somatization: The concept and its clinical application. Am J Psychiatry 145:1358-1368, 1988
3. Kleinman AM: Depression, somatization and the "new cross-cultural psychiatry." Soc Sci Med 11:3-10, 1977
4. Kirmayer LJ, Robbins JM: Three forms of somatization in primary care: Prevalence, co-occurrence and sociodemographic characteristics. J Nerv Ment Dis 179:647-655, 1991
5. Escobar JL, Rubio-Stipec M, Canino G, et al.: Somatic Symptom Index (SSI): A new and abridged somatization construct. J Nerv Ment Dis 177:140-146, 1989
6. Janca A, Burke JD Jr, Isaac M, et al: The World Health Organization somatoform disorders schedule. A preliminary report on design and reliability. Eur J Psychiatry 10:373-378, 1995
7. Barsky AJ: Amplification, somatization, and the somatoform disorders. Psychosomatics 33:28-34, 1992
8. Goldberg DP, Bridges K: Somatic presentations of psychiatric illness in primary care setting. J Psychosom Res 32:137-144, 1988
9. White GM: The role of cultural explanations in "somatization" and "psychologization." Soc Sci Med 16:1519-1530, 1982
10. Gaw AC: Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Illness. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Press, 1993
11. Isaac M, Janca A, Orley J: Somatization - A culture-bound or universal syndrome? J Ment Health 5:219-222, 1996
12. Robins LN, Regier D: Psychiatric Disorders in America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study. New York, Free Press, 1991
13. Canino IA, Rubio-Stipec M, Canino G, et al: Functional somatic symptoms: A cross-ethnic comparison. Am J Orthopsychiatry 62:605-612, 1992
14. Ebigbo PO: Development of a culture specific (Nigeria) screening scale of somatic complaints indicating psychiatric disturbance. Cult Med Psychiatry 6:29-43, 1982
15. Mumford DB, Bavington JT, Bhatnagar KS, et al: The Bradford Somatic Inventory: A multi-ethnic inventory of somatic symptoms reported by anxious and depressed patients in Britain and the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. Br J Psychiatry 158:379-386, 1991
16. Ebigbo PO: A cross-sectional study of somatic complaints of Nigerian females using the Enugu somatization scale. Cult Med Psychiatry 10:167-186, 1986
17. Mumford DB, Tareen IAK, Bajwa MAZ, et al: An investigation of "functional" somatic symptoms among patients attending medical clinics in Pakistan. I. Characteristics of "non-organic" patients. J Psychosom Res 35:245-255, 1991
18. Mumford DB: Somatic sensations and psychological distress among students in Britain and Pakistan. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 24:321-326, 1989
19. Lobo A, Garcia-Campayo J, Campos R, et al, and the GMPPZ: Somatisation in primary care in Spain. I. Estimates of prevalence and clinical characteristics. Br J Psychiatry 168:344-353, 1996
20. Ohaeri JU, Odejide OA: Somatization symptoms among patients using primary health care facilities in a rural community in Nigeria. Am J Psychiatry 151:728-731, 1994
21. Ustün TB, Sartorius N: Mental Illness in General Health Care: An International Study. Chichester, John Wiley, 1995
22. Üstun T, Sartorius N: Mental Illness in Primary Care: An International Study. London, John Wiley, 1995
23. Gureje O, Simon GE, Ustun TB, et al: Somatization in cross-cultural perspective: A World Health Organization study in primary care. Am J Psychiatry 154:989-995, 1997
24. Simon G, Gater R, Kisely S, et al: Somatic symptoms of distress: An international primary care study. Psychosom Med 58:481-488, 1996
25. Kawanishi Y: Somatization of Asians: An artifact of medicalization? Transcult Psychiatr Res Rev 29:5-36, 1992
26. Beiser M, Fleming JAE: Measuring psychiatric disorder among Southeast Asian refugees. Psychol Med 16:627-639, 1986
27. Kirmayer LJ, Young A, Gaulbaud du Fort G, et al: Pathways and Barriers to Mental Health Care: A Community Survey and Ethnographic Study. Montreal, Culture & Mental Health Research Unit, Institute of Community & Family Psychiatry, Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital, 1996
28. Kirmayer LJ, Galbaud DuFort G, Young A, et al: Utilization of mental health services for psychological distress by immigrants. In Lesage A (ed), Annual Meeting of the Canadian Academy for Psychiatric Epidemiology. Quebec City, 1996
29. Kirmayer LJ, Weiss MG: Cultural considerations on somatoform disorders. In Widiger TA, Frances AJ, Pincus HA, et al (eds), DSM-IV Sourcebook, Vol. 3. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Press, 1997, 933-941
30. Kirmayer LJ: Mind and body as metaphors: Hidden values in biomedicine. In Lock M, Gordon D (eds), Biomedicine Examined. Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1988, 57-92
31. Kirmayer LJ: Improvisation and authority in illness meaning. Cult Med Psychiatry 18:183-214, 1994
32. Weiss MG, Raguram R, Channabasavanna SM: Cultural dimensions of psychiatric diagnosis: A comparison of DSM-III-R and illness explanatory models in South India. Br J Psychiatry 166:353-359, 1995
33. American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Edition 4. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Press, 1994
34. Kim LIC: Psychiatric care of Korean Americans. In Gaw AC (ed), Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Illness. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Press, 1993, 347-376
35. Lin K-M, Lau JKC, Yamamoto J, et al: Hwa-byung: A community study of Korean Americans. J Nerv Ment Dis 180:386-391, 1992
36. Lin K-M: Hwa-Byung: A Korean culture-bound syndrome? Am J Psychiatry 140:105-107, 1983
37. Pang KYC: Hwabyung: The construction of a Korean popular illness among Korean elderly immigrant women in the United States. Cult Med Psychiatry 14:495-512, 1990
38. Prince R: The brain fag syndrome in Nigerian students. J Ment Sci 106:559-570, 1960
39. Guinness EA: Profile and prevalence of the brain fag syndrome: Psychiatric morbidity in school populations in Africa. Br J Psychiatry 160:42-52, 1992
40. Jegede RO: Psychiatric illness in African students: "Brain fag" syndrome revisited. Can J Psychiatry 28:188-192, 1983
41. Morakinyo O: A psychophysiological theory of a psychiatric illness (the brain fag syndrome) associated with study among Africans. J Nerv Ment Dis 168:84-89, 1980
42. Paris J: Dhat: The semen loss anxiety syndrome. Transcult Psychiatr Res Rev 29:109-118, 1992
43. Bhatia MS, Malik SC: Dhat syndrome - A useful diagnostic entity in Indian culture. Br J Psychiatry 159:691-695, 1991
44. Mumford DB: The "Dhat syndrome": A culturally determined symptom of depression? Acta Psychiatr Scand 94:163-167, 1996
45. Goldberg D, Huxley P: Common Mental Disorders: A Bio-Social Model. London, Tavistock/Routledge, 1992
46. Kirmayer LJ, Taillefer S: Somatoform disorders. In Turner S, Hersen M (eds), Adult Psychopathology. New York, John Wiley, 1997, 333-383
47. Kirmayer LJ: Broken narratives: Clinical encounters and the poetics of illness experience. In Mattingly C, Garro L (eds), Narrative and the Cultural Construction of Illness and Healing. Berkeley, University of California Press, in press
48. Shedler J, Mayman M, Manis M: The illusion of mental health. Am Psychologist 48:1117-1131, 1993
49. Young A: The Harmony of Illusions: Inventing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1995
50. Kirmayer LJ, Robbins JM, Paris J: Somatoform disorders: Personality and the social matrix of somatic distress. J Abnorm Psychol 103:125-136, 1994
51. Craig TKJ, Boardman AP, Mills K, et al: The South London Somatisation Study: I. Longitudinal course and the influence of early life experiences. Br J Psychiatry 163:579-588, 1993
52. Taylor G: Alexithymia: Concept, measurement, and implications for treatment. Am J Psychiatry 141:725-732, 1984
53. Lumley MA, Norman S: Alexithymia and health care utilization. Psychosom Med 58:197-202, 1996
54. Cohen K, Auld F, Brooker H: Is alexithymia related to psychosomatic disorder and somatizing? J Psychosom Res 38:119-127, 1994
55. Good BJ: The heart of what's the matter: The semantics of illness in Iran. Cult Med Psychiatry 1:25-58, 1977
56. Mirdal GM: The condition of "tightness": The somatic complaints of Turkish migrant women. Acta Psychiatr Scand 71: 287-296, 1985
57. Guarnaccia PJ: Ataques de nervios in Puerto Rico: Culture-bound syndrome or popular illness? Med Anthropol 15:157-170, 1993
58. Lock M, Wakewich-Dunk P: Nerves and nostalgia: expression of loss among Greek immigrants in Montreal. Can Fam Physician 36:253-258, 1990
59. Davis DL, Whitten RG: Medical and popular traditions of nerves. Soc Sci Med 26:1209-1211, 1988
60. Laguerre M: Afro-Caribbean Folk Medicine. South Hadley, MA, Bergin & Garvey, 1987
61. Sobo EJ: One Blood: The Jamaican Body. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1993
62. Young A: Rational men and the explanatory model approach. Cult Med Psychiatry 6:57-71, 1982
63. Kirmayer LJ: The body's insistence on meaning: Metaphor as presentation and representation in illness experience. Med Anthropol Q 6:323-346, 1992
64. Kirmayer LJ, Young A, Robbins JM: Symptom attribution in cultural perspective. Can J Psychiatry 39:584-595, 1994
65. Lock M: Cultivating the body: Anthropology and epistemologies of bodily practice and knowledge. Annu Rev Anthropol 22:133-135, 1993
66. Lewis IM: Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism. London, Penguin Books, 1971
67. Comaroff J, Comaroff J: Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1985
68. Kleinman A: Social Origins of Distress and Disease. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986
69. Pennebaker JW: Opening Up: The Healing Power of Confiding in Others. New York, William Morrow, 1990
70. Pennebaker JW: Emotion, Disclosure, and Health. Washington, DC, American Psychological Association, 1995
71. Nemiah JC, Freyberger H, Sifneos PE: Alexithymia: A view of the psychosomatic process. In Hill OW (ed), Modern Trends in Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol. 3. London, Butterworth, 1976, 430-439
72. Pennebaker JW, Czajka JA, Cropanzano R, et al: Levels of thinking. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 16:743-757, 1990
73. Lane RD, Quinlan DM, Schwartz GE, et al: The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale - A cognitive-developmental measure of emotion. J Pers Assess 55:124-134, 1990
74. Lane RD, Sechrest L, Reidel R, et al: Impaired verbal and nonverbal emotional recognition in alexithymia. Psychosom Med 58:203-210, 1996
75. Kirmayer LJ: Languages of suffering and healing: Alexithymia as a social and cultural process. Transcult Psychiatr Res Rev 24:119-136, 1987
76. McDougall J: Theaters of the Mind: Illusion and Truth on the Psychoanalytic Stage. New York, Basic Books, 1985
77. Kirmayer LJ: Somatization and the social construction of illness experience. In McHugh S, Valus TM (eds), Illness Behavior: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. New York, Plenum Press, 1986, 111-133
78. Kirmayer LJ, Robbins JM: Patients who somatize in primary care: A longitudinal study of cognitive and social characteristics. Psychol Med 26:937-951, 1996
79. Powell R, Dolan R, Wessely S: Attributions and self-esteem in depression and chronic fatigue syndromes. J Psychosom Res 34:665-673, 1990
80. Thoits PA: Self-labeling processes in mental illness: The role of emotional deviance. Am J Soc 91:221-247, 1985
81. Ortony A, Clore GL, Collins A: The Cognitive Structure of Emotions. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988
82. Harré R: The Social Construction of Emotion. Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1986
83. Russell JA: Culture and the categorization of emotions. Psychol Bull 110:426-450, 1991
84. Fivush R: Constructing narrative, emotion, and self in parent-child conversations about the past. In Neisser U, Fivush R (eds), The Remembering Self: Construction and Accuracy in the Self-Narrative. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1994, 136-157
85. Markus HR, Kitayama S: Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychol Rev 98:224-253, 1991
86. Bellah RN, Madsen R, Sullivan WM, et al: Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1985
87. Kirmayer LJ: Psychotherapy and the cultural concept of the person. Santé Cult Health 6:241-270, 1989
88. Shweder R: Thinking Through Culture: Expeditions in Cultural Psychology. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1991
89. Triandis HC, Bontempo R, Villareal MJ, et al: Individualism and collectivism: Cross-cultural perspectives on self-ingroup relationships. J Pers Soc Psychol 54:323-338, 1988
90. Marsella AJ, DeVos G, Hsu FLK: Culture and Self: Asian and Western Perspectives. New York, Tavistock, 1985, 185-230
91. Wikan U: Managing Turbulent Hearts: A Balinese Formula for Living. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1990
92. Weisz JR, Rothbaum FM, Blackburn TC: Standing out and standing in: The psychology of control in America and Japan. Am Psychol 39:955-969, 1984
93. Fabrega H: Somatization in cultural and historical perspective. In Kirmayer LJ, Robbins JM (eds), Current Concepts of Somatization: Research and Clinical Perspectives. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Press, 1991, 181-199
94. Cushman P: Why the self is empty: Toward a historically situated psychology. Am Psychol 45:599-611, 1990
95. Csordas TJ: Embodiment and Experience. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994