Today, the concept of a ‘culture-bound syndrome’ seems almost mundane. Surely we already know that particular genes and environmental influences can predispose a population to certain diseases. For example, Ashkenazi Jews are at a much higher risk for developing the genetic defect associated with Tay-Sachs disease than other populations, and one is much more likely to contract malaria in tropical and subtropical regions than in, say, Massachusetts. However, these types of disease have biological causes. What is interesting about the phenomena of culture-bound syndromes is that they have no physical mechanism and arise only from the emerging characteristics of one’s culture.

Some well-studied examples of conditions documented only within a specific culture include:

Ghost sickness in the Navajo Native American Tribe: The sufferer is overcome with feelings of danger, feelings of suffocation, hallucinations, weakness, fainting, and preoccupation with death. The cause is usually attributed to ghosts. This specific syndrome has only been documented within the Navajo tribe.
Taijin Kyofushu in Japan: Feelings of anxiety toward the dread of offending others. The syndrome is broken into four sub-categories: Fear of blushing, fear of a deformed body, fear of a foul body odor, and fear of eye-to-eye contact.

An artist's rendition of Ghost Sickness

What is also interesting about culture-bound syndromes is that the culture is normally not quick to recognize them as such. The culture sees such a syndrome as a true disease with a definable cause. Considering that, have we classified some ailments as diseases that are really the emerging effects of our own society? For example: anorexia nervosa. There is a substantial body of research studying the biological aspects of anorexia, including genetic components. However, have these biological qualities evolved in response to our culture’s insistence on self-control and perfection?  In societies which hold to certain ideals so strongly, it is logical to believe that the constant bombardment of these stimuli can, and do, affect the body. As a culture, America puts an enormous amount of importance on perfection, success, and self-control and children are raised with these pillars as goals.  Is there a “critical period” during development when these cultural ideals are encoded within us?  If so, how?  Where?

If anorexia is in fact a culture-bound syndrome, to what culture is it bound? Is anorexia American? It is easy to see where the controversy arises. For many years the disease has been considered a western-bound cultural disorder; however, the scope has widened to include a prevalence in many eastern countries. Could this change be because of western influence in the east?  Or, perhaps, it is not geographically culture-bound at all.  Some suggest that anorexia is a “modernity”-bound syndrome, and that we, as world community, are the products of the era we live in.

What do you think?  Is anorexia a culture-bound syndrome?  What other disorders might be considered culture-bound?  Are culture-bound syndromes a real phenomenon?

Come to BU Mind and Brain Society’s discussion of culture-bound syndromes on Monday, March 7th at 8:00pm in room 109 of 2 Cummington.  We’ll discuss the many facets of culture-bound syndromes and how they relate to our society and biology.

Culture-Bound Syndrome – Wikipedia
The Concept of Culture-Bound Syndromes… – Social Science & Medicine
Eating disorders: a transcultural perspective – Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal
Culture Bound Syndromes – tripod.com

The Odd Couple via Omahype

Have you ever considered there to be commonalities between autism and anorexia? Up until a few weeks ago, the idea  never crossed my mind. I was more focused on how that other autism study about vaccines was proven to be a complete hoax.

On February 10th, researchers at the University of Bath in England released some information on an upcoming paper that is to be published in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology. Dr. Mark Brosnan and the rest of his research team have possibly found a correlation between autism and eating disorders. Although there have been hints to this relationship in clinical settings (the news blurb refers to women diagnosed with eating disorders producing high scores on a “questionnaire that measures characteristics associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)”), no formal research had been performed to test the strength of the relationship between the two diseases.

Dr. Brosnan studied 61 boys and 71 girls between the ages of 11 and 14  to make up a total of 132 children. His reasoning for testing this age group was to see if there was a correlation between the two disorders at a young age in a “non-clinical population.” All of the students filled out questionnaires that examined their characteristics and how strongly they relate to autism and eating disorders. The to be published results suggest that there is indeed a link between the two disorders, and the relationship is especially strong between “eating disorder, attention to detail and communication skills.”

In addition to the results of the research being simply interesting, Brosnan has stated that finding this relationship is key since “‘The application of one research area to another may contribute to a better understanding of both clinical conditions.’” Brosnan then goes on to describe how autism is seen as a disorder that mainly affects men, and eating disorders mainly affect women. However, his research shows that high scores relating to “attention to detail” and “poor communication skills” were found the most among those who expressed the largest tendencies toward eating disorder. High scores in these two areas of the autism assessment were the greatest predictor of a high score on the eating disorder assessment, not sex of the student.

This paper has yet to be published, so more complex questions about the study will remain unanswered until the research is officially published. However, these implications prove to be very intriguing. Keep an eye on it. I know I will.

Eating disorders linked with autism in school children – University News of the University of Bath