Amok syndrome is an aggressive dissociative behavioral pattern derived from Indonesia and Malaysia that led to the English phrase running amok. The word derives from the Malay word amuk, traditionally meaning "rushing in a frenzy" or "attacking furiously". Amok syndrome presents as an episode of sudden mass assault against people or objects following a period of brooding, which has traditionally been regarded as occurring especially in Malaysian culture but is now increasingly viewed as psychopathological behavior. The syndrome of "Amok" is found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In the DSM-V, Amok syndrome is no longer considered a culture-bound syndrome, since the category of culture-bound syndrome has been removed.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a person's life or well-being. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in the way a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response. These symptoms last for more than a month after the event. Young children are less likely to show distress, but instead may express their memories through play. A person with PTSD is at a higher risk of suicide and intentional self-harm.
Somatization disorder was a mental and behavioral disorder characterized by recurring, multiple, and current, clinically significant complaints about somatic symptoms. It was recognized in the DSM-IV-TR classification system, but in the latest version DSM-5, it was combined with undifferentiated somatoform disorder to become somatic symptom disorder, a diagnosis which no longer requires a specific number of somatic symptoms. ICD-10, the latest version of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, still includes somatization syndrome.
Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), hyposexuality or inhibited sexual desire (ISD) is sometimes considered a sexual dysfunction, and is characterized as a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity, as judged by a clinician. For this to be regarded as a disorder, it must cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulties and not be better accounted for by another mental disorder, a drug, or some other medical condition. A person with ISD will not start, or respond to their partner's desire for, sexual activity. HSDD affects approximately 10% of all pre-menopausal women in the United States, or about 6 million women.
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a mood disorder characterized by emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms. PMDD causes significant distress or impairment in menstruating women during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The symptoms occur in the luteal phase, improve within a few days after the onset of menses, and are minimal or absent in the week after menses. PMDD has a profound impact on a woman’s quality of life and dramatically increases the risk of suicidal ideation and even suicide attempts. Many women of reproductive age experience discomfort or mild mood changes prior to menstruation. However, 5–8% experience severe premenstrual syndrome causing significant distress or functional impairment. Within this population of reproductive age, some will meet the criteria for PMDD.
The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine were a group of 19th-century lumberjacks who exhibited a rare disorder of unknown origin. The syndrome entails an exaggerated startle reflex which may be described as an uncontrollable "jump"; individuals with this condition can exhibit sudden movements in all parts of the body. Jumping Frenchmen syndrome shares some symptoms with other startle disorders.
Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions and other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness. The syndrome has also been called nonsense syndrome, balderdash syndrome, syndrome of approximate answers, hysterical pseudodementia or prison psychosis.
Depersonalization-derealization disorder is a mental disorder in which the person has persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization. Depersonalization is described as feeling disconnected or detached from one's self. Individuals may report feeling as if they are an outside observer of their own thoughts or body, and often report feeling a loss of control over their thoughts or actions. Derealization is described as detachment from one's surroundings. Individuals experiencing derealization may report perceiving the world around them as foggy, dreamlike, surreal, and/or visually distorted.
In medicine and medical anthropology, a culture-bound syndrome, culture-specific syndrome, or folk illness is a combination 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. The term culture-bound syndrome was included in the fourth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which also includes a list of the most common culture-bound conditions. Counterpart within the framework of ICD-10 are the culture-specific disorders defined in Annex 2 of the Diagnostic criteria for research.
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), also referred to as non-epileptic attacks (NEA), functional seizures, or dissociative seizures, are episodes resembling an epileptic seizure but without the characteristic electrical discharges associated with epilepsy. PNES fall under the category of disorders known as functional neurological disorders (FND), also known as conversion disorders, and are typically treated by psychologists or psychiatrists. PNES has previously been called pseudoseizures, stress seizures, and hysterical seizures, but these terms have fallen out of favor.
Pain disorder is chronic pain experienced by a patient in one or more areas, and is thought to be caused by psychological stress. The pain is often so severe that it disables the patient from proper functioning. Duration may be as short as a few days or as long as many years. The disorder may begin at any age, and occurs more frequently in girls than boys. This disorder often occurs after an accident, during an illness that has caused pain, or after withdrawing from use during drug addiction, which then takes on a 'life' of its own.
Piblokto, also known as pibloktoq and Arctic hysteria, is a condition most commonly appearing in Inughuit societies living within the Arctic Circle. Piblokto is a culture-specific hysterical reaction in Inuit, especially women, who may perform irrational or dangerous acts, followed by amnesia for the event. Piblokto may be linked to repression of the personality of Inuit women. The condition appears most commonly in winter. It is considered to be a form of a culture-bound syndrome, although more recent studies question whether it exists at all. Piblokto is also part of the glossary of cultural bound syndromes found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).
This glossary covers terms found in the psychiatric literature; the word origins are primarily Greek, but there are also Latin, French, German, and English terms. Many of these terms refer to expressions dating from the early days of psychiatry in Europe.
Echopraxia is the involuntary repetition or imitation of another person's actions. Similar to echolalia, the involuntary repetition of sounds and language, it is one of the echophenomena. It has long been recognized as a core feature of Tourette syndrome, and is considered a complex tic, but it also occurs in autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and catatonia, aphasia, and disorders involving the startle reflex such as latah. Echopraxia has also been observed in individuals with epilepsy, dementia and autoimmune disorders; the causes of and the link between echopraxia and these disorders is undetermined.
Grisi siknis is a contagious, culture-bound syndrome that occurs predominantly among the Miskito people of eastern Central America, and affects mainly young women. It is also known as "grisi munaia", "Chipil siknis", and "Nil siknis". More recently, cases occurring amongst people of Spanish descent have also been reported.
Brief psychotic disorder—according to the classifications of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5—is a psychotic condition involving the sudden onset of at least one psychotic symptom lasting 1 day to 1 month, often accompanied by emotional turmoil. Remission of all symptoms is complete with patients returning to the previous level of functioning. It may follow a period of extreme stress including the loss of a loved one. Most patients with this condition under DSM-5 would be classified as having acute and transient psychotic disorders under ICD-10. Prior to DSM-IV, this condition was called "brief reactive psychosis." This condition may or may not be recurrent, and it should not be caused by another condition.
Iich'aa is a culture-bound syndrome found in the Navajo Native American culture. The non-exclusive list of symptoms are: epileptic behaviour, loss of self-control, self-destructive behaviour and fits of violence and rage.
Ataque de nervios, also known as "Nervous tension") is a psychological syndrome mostly associated, in the United States, with Spanish-speaking people from the Caribbean, although commonly identified among all Iberian-descended cultures. Ataque de nervios translates into English as "attack of nerves", although it is used in its common cultural form to refer to a specific pattern of symptoms, rather than being a general term for feeling nervous. The Diccionario Panhispánico de Términos Médicos translates it as "attack of nerves, nervous breakdown". The condition appears in Appendix I of the revised fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) as a culture-bound syndrome.
Locura, which translates to "insanity" in Spanish, is a mental disorder characterized as severe chronic psychosis. The term refers to a culture-bound syndrome, found mostly in Latin America and Latin Americans in the United States. Also referred to as ataques de locura, it is categorized as a more severe form of nerviosataque de nervios with symptoms appearing similar to those of schizophrenia.
