Somatization Across Cultures

The body is a cultural vessel, giving voice to the unspoken words of the soul and transforming the nuances of distress into a script of symptoms that echoes across diverse cultural landscapes.

Within the intricate tapestry of human experience, certain threads stand out, weaving a story that defies boundaries and spans the globe. Somatization Across Cultures unfurls these threads, illuminating the diverse landscape of somatisation disorders and their interplay with culture, identity, and healing practices. As you embark on this literary voyage, prepare to traverse continents and minds, exploring the profound connection between the physical and the psychological, the cultural and the clinical.

Part of the Oxford Cultural Psychiatry series, this volume brings together the various somatisation syndromes: their description, presentation, assessment, and management in one place. It is a fascinating read for any psychiatrist, physician, clinical psychologist, public health specialist, nurse and other
healthcare professional, as well as any sociologist, anthropologist, and policymaker, and anyone else interested in this area of psychiatry.

• Brings together the various syndromes, descriptions, presentations, and assessments of somatization
• Draws global perspectives on somatization from cultures across the world
• Provides practical guidance on diagnosis and management
• Written by experts from around the world

CONTENTS

Part 1 – General issues related to somatisation and culture
1:Introduction to Somatization across cultures
2:General concept about somatisation
3:Culture and Somatisation
Part 2 – Specific issues related to somatisation and culture
4:Specific issues related to somatization and culture
5:Understanding somatization from a neuroscience perspective
6:Cultural evolution of Somatization disorders
7:Assessment and challenges of the use of assessment tools across cultures
8:Somatization in children and adolescents across cultures
9:Somatization disorders in incarcerated populations
Part 3 – Somatization in different countries and regions
10:Somatization disorders in the United Kingdom
11:Somatization in Russia: the historical research aspects and their influence on the clinical practice
12:Somatization in Paraguay
13:Somatization disorders in Central and western Asia
14:Somatization In North America
15:Somatization in South-East Asia
16:Somatization disorders in Central and North Europe
17:Somatization In Africa
18:Somatization Disorders in South America
Part 4 – Section Management of somatization across cultures
19:General Principles in the Management of Somatization
20:Psychopharmacological approaches in somatization disorders across cultures
21:Psychotherapeutic Models on Somatization across Cultures
22:Role of Traditional Healers and Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Mental Health
23:Somatization across cultures: Epilogue