Suchergebnisse

We report the first community epidemiological study of taijin kyofusho in Japan. A total of 132 inhabitants in a small community in the city of Kofu, Japan, was interviewed by trained interviewers using a semistructured interview, and completed self-report questionnaires. Of these respondents, nine (6.8%) reported ' taijin kyofu' symptoms, eight of whom reported having specific concerns about strong body odor although the ' taijin kyofu' symptoms were not serious enough to meet the criteria of a mental disorder. Although taijin kyofusho has traditionally been viewed as a disorder of young males, our cases were older and predominantly female. Although this sample was small and drawn from only one community, and we had no control group, our findings seem to support the view that some psychiatric symptoms are influenced by socio-cultural factors and that the symptoms of taijin kyofu are likely to be found in the general population of Japan.

To investigate the prevalence rates and characteristics of poorly explained or unexplained somatic symptoms in the general population of Japan, questionnaires were administered to 132 people aged 18 years or older in a small community in the city of Kofu. The participants were then interviewed by trained interviewers using a semi-structured interview schedule. Of the 132 participants in our study, 55 (41%) reported somatic symptoms. Of these 55, nine (16%) were diagnosed with a specific DSM-IV somatoform disorder. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the number of poorly explained symptoms among women was related to the respondent's score on Neuroticism. These data suggest that poorly explained or unexplained somatic symptoms are related to personality characteristics. Moreover, our analysis also revealed a gender difference in the pattern of these relationships. None of the respondents who reported medically unexplained somatic symptoms had sought psychiatric care.

Patients with minor psychiatric disorders, including neuroses, situational adjustment reaction or acute emotional reaction, were investigated using symptom questionnaires at five research sites in Asia including: Chiang-Mai, Thailand; Bali, Indonesia; Kao-Hsiung, Taiwan, China; Shanghai, China; and Tokyo, Japan. The results revealed that the symptom profiles differ significantly among groups of different settings indicating that sociocultural background does contribute to the manifestation of neurotic symptomatology. It was also found that numerous and various subtypes of somatic scales were identified through factor analysis of symptoms for these Asian populations. It demonstrates that the spectrum of neurotic symptoms has a different focus for subjects in different sociocultural settings.