Culture-bound syndrome

A culture-bound syndrome, also called a culture-specific syndrome or folk illness, is a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that is recognized as a disease only within a specific society or culture. No objective biochemical or structural alteration of the body is known for such a syndrome, and the condition is not recognized in other cultures. The term entered the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1994, which lists common examples in an appendix, and its counterpart in ICD-10 Chapter V is the set of culture-specific disorders in the research criteria. A syndrome of this kind is understood in its own culture as a disease, is widely familiar there, is unfamiliar elsewhere, and is recognized and treated by the folk medicine of that culture. The term is controversial, because anthropologists tend to stress its cultural specificity while physicians tend to stress universal neuropsychological features. If a biological cause is later found, the condition is redefined into another category. This entry records what the sources state and is not medical advice.