Korea
- hwa-byung or wool-hwa-bung: (Korea) "anger
syndrome".
- shin-byung: (Korea) syndrome characterized by anxiety and
somatic complaints (general weakness, dizziness, fear, loss of
appetite, insomnia, and gastrointestinal problems), followed by
dissociation and possession by ancestral spirits.
Other East Asia
- amurakh, irkunii, ikota, olan,
myriachit, and menkeiti (Siberian groups): See
latah (Malaysia).
South and Southeast Asia
- dhat and jiryan: (India) semen-loss syndrome.
- sukra prameha (Sri Lanka): semen-loss syndrome.
- jinjinia bemar (Assam): See koro (Malaysia).
- amok: (Malaysia) a dissociative episode characterized by
a period of brooding followed by an outburst of violent, aggressive,
destructive, or homicidal behavior.
- koro: (Malaysia) an episode of sudden and intense anxiety
that the penis (or in the rare female cases, the vulva and nipples)
will recede into the body and possibly cause death.
- latah: (Malaysia and Indonesia) hypersensitivity to
sudden fright, often with echopraxia, echoLalia, command obedience,
and dissociative or trancelike behavior. The Malaysian syndrome is
more frequent in middle-aged women.
- rok-joo (Thailand): See koro (Malaysia).
- bah-tschi, bah-tsi, and baah-ji (Thailand):
See latah (Malaysia).
- mali-mali and silok (Philippines): See
latah (Malaysia).
- zar: (Ethiopia, Somalia, Egypt, Sudan, Iran, and
elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East) experience of spirit
possession. Symptoms may include dissociative episodes with
laughing, shouting, hitting the head against a wall, singing, or
weeping. Individuals may show apathy and withdrawal, refusing to
eat or carry out daily tasks, or may develop a long-term
relationship with the possessing spirit.
- brain fag or brain fog: (West Africa) a condition
experience by high school or university students. Symtoms include
difficulties in concentrating, remembering, and thinking.
Additional symptoms center around the head and neck and include
pain, pressure, tightness, blurring of vision, heat, or burning.
- boufée deliriante: (West Africa and Haiti) sudden
outburst of agitated and aggressive behavior, marked confusion, and
psychomotor excitement. It may sometimes be accompanied by visual
and auditory hallucinations or paranoid ideation.
- nevra (Greece): See nervios (Latin America).
- mal de ojo: (Spain and Latin America) the "evil eye".
- sangue dormido: (Portuguese Cape Verdeans) Literally
"sleeping blood". Symptoms include pain, numbness, tremor,
paralysis, convulsions, stroke, blindness, heart attack, infection,
and miscarriage.
- falling out or blacking out: (Southern U.S. and
Caribbean) episodes characterized by sudden collapse and fainting,
often with hysterical blindness.
- mal de pelea (Puerto Rico): see amok (Malaysia).
- locura: (Latin America) a severe, chronic psychosis.
- ataque de nervios: an idiom of distress principally
reported among Latinos from the Caribbean, but also among many Latin
American and Latin Mediterranean groups. Symptoms include
uncontrULlable shouting, attacks of crying, trembling, heat in the
chest rising to the head, and verbal or physical aggression.
Ataques de nervios frequently occur as a result of a stressful
family event, especially the death of a relative, but also a divorce
or fight with a family member.
- bilis and colera: part of a general Latin American
idiom of distress and explanation of physical or mental illness as a
result of extreme emotion, which upsets the humors (described in
terms of hot and cold.) Bilis and colera specifically implicate
anger in the cause of illness.
- mal de ojo: (Spain and Latin America) the "evil eye".
- nervios: (Latin America) Idiom of distress, refers to a
general state of vulnerability to stressful life experiences and to
a syndrome brought on by such stresses. Symptoms may be very broad,
but commonly include emotional distress, headaches, irritability,
stomach disturbances, sleep disturbances, nervousness, easy
tearfulness, inability to concentrate, tingling sensations, and
dizziness.
- susto: an idiom of distress principally reported among
Latinos in the U.S. and Latin America. Susto is an illness
attributed to a frightening event that causes the soul to leave the
body, leading to symptoms of unhappiness and sickness. Symptoms are
extremely variable and may occur months or years after the
supposedly precipitating event.
Alternate names include espanto, pasmo, tripa
ida, perdida del alma, and chibih.
- mal puesto or brujeria (Latin America): illness
caused by witchcraft.
- anorexia mirabilis or holy anorexia: (medieval
Europe): severe restriction of food intake, associated with
experience of religious devotion. Often not considered pathological
within the culture. The terms are used by historians, and are not
emic.
- anorexia nervosa (North America, Western Europe): severe
restriction of food intake, associated with morbid fear of obesity.
Other methods may also be used to lose weight, including excessive
exercise. May overlap with symptoms of bulimia nervosa.
- bulimia nervosa (North America, Western Europe): binge
eating followed by purging through self-induced vomiting, laxatives,
or diuretics; and morbid fear of obesity. May overlap with symptoms
of anorexia nervosa.
- anorexia nervosa (North America, Western Europe): severe
restriction of food intake, associated with morbid fear of obesity.
Other methods may also be used to lose weight, including excessive
exercise. May overlap with symptoms of bulimia nervosa.
- bulimia nervosa (North America, Western Europe): binge
eating followed by purging through self-induced vomiting, laxatives,
or diuretics; and morbid fear of obesity. May overlap with symptoms
of anorexia nervosa.
- falling out or blacking out: (Southern U.S. and
Caribbean) episodes characterized by sudden collapse and fainting,
often with hysterical blindness.
- spell: (southern U.S.) a trance state in which
individuals "communicate" with deceased relatives or with spirits.
- rootwork: (Southern U.S. and Caribbean) illness as the
result of hexing, witchcraft, voodoo, or the influence of an evil
person.
- ghost sickness: (American Indian groups) preoccupation
with death and the deceased, sometimes associated with witchcraft.
Symptoms may include bad dreams, weakness, feelings of danger, loss
of appetite, fainting, dizziness, fear, anxiety, hallucinations,
loss of consciousness, confusion, feelings of futility, amd a sense
of suffocation.
- iich'aa (Navaho): see amok (Malaysia).
- windigo or witiko: (Algonkian Indians, NE US and
Eastern Canada) syndrome of obsessive cannibalism, now somewhat
discredited. Windigo was supposedly brought about by consuming human
flesh in famine situations. Afterwards, the cannibal was supposed
to be haunted by cravings for human flesh and thoughts of killing
and eating humans.
- pibloktoq: (Greenland Eskimos) an abrupt dissociative
episode.
- cafard or cathard: see amok (Malaysia).