Culture and somatization

Starting perhaps in the second century BCE, and with Hippocratic precedent, ancient medical writers described a condition they called hysterike pnix or "uterine suffocation." This paper argues that uterine suffocation was, in modern terms, a functional somatic syndrome characterized by chronic anxiety and panic attacks. Transcultural psychiatrists have identified and described a number of similar panic-type syndromes in modern populations, and a plausible theory of how they work has been advanced. These insights, applied to the ancient disease of hysterike pnix, demystify the condition and illuminate the experience of the women who suffered from it.

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Culture and somatization

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The amplification of somatic symptoms in upper respiratory tract infections

The amplification of somatic symptoms in upper respiratory tract infections

Factor Structure and Other Psychometric Properties of the Social Phobia Inventory in Korean Samples

Panic and Culture:Hysterike Pnixin the Ancient Greek World

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