Citation

Gaw AC, Bernstein RL. Hosp. Community Psychiatry 1992; 43(8): 789-793.

Affiliation

Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA 01730.

Comment In:

Hosp Community Psychiatry 1993;44(5):500

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, American Psychiatric Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1427677

Abstract

Culture-bound syndromes have been described worldwide in many individuals and, for certain syndromes, in epidemic proportion, yet these disorders have been classified as rare and exotic conditions warranting minimal attention. Development of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases offers an opportunity for providing a more sophisticated classification of these phenomena. The authors examine amok, a syndrome first described in Malaysia that consists of homicidal frenzy preceded by a state of brooding and ending with somnolence and amnesia. They discuss the concept of and criteria for a culture-specific disorder and propose that amok be classified as a culture-specific explosive behavioral disorder in DSM-IV.

Language: en