Koro syndrome is the fear that some erogenous zones will shrink or shrink and, at the last minute, disappear.
Men fear that the penis will shrink or disappear, while women’s anxiety focuses on retraction and disappearance of vaginal lips, nipples and breasts.
- Often.
- These episodes of great anxiety are accompanied by the conviction that death will occur.
- Allowing a different diagnosis to be established between Koro syndrome and body dysmorphic disorder (TDC).
People with body dysmorphic disorder are too concerned about one or more perceived defects in their physical appearance, which is why they feel ugly, unactive, abnormal and deformed.
However, people with Koro syndrome focus their concern that remarkable change leads to death, not the “ugliness” of these parts of their body.
This syndrome is cultural and often appears as an epidemic on the Asian continent, particularly in the southeastern region and Singapore. This syndrome is also known as shuk yang, shook yong and suo yang, jinjinia bemar or rok-joo.
However, although it originated in China, there are cases of Koro around the world, with recordings of episodes of collective transfer in African countries.
These highly feared episodes are usually short-lived and also adequately respond to rational therapies and explanations.
Koro syndrome is therefore considered to have a powerful cultural causal agent, so the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders places Koro’s disorder in cultural syndromes, such as Dhat syndrome.
Despite its name, Dhat syndrome is not a syndrome itself, but a cultural explanation of some of the various sets of symptoms that have traditionally been attributed to sperm loss.
These symptoms include anxiety, fatigue, weakness, weight loss, impotence, multiple other somatic complaints and depressive mood. The essential feature is anxiety and discomfort in the absence of any identifiable physiological dysfunction.
Dhat is identified by those affected as a white discharge, which they notice during evacuation or urination. Ideas about this substance are related to the concept of dhatu (sperm), described in the Hindu medicinal system (ayurveda) as one of the seven fluid bodily essentials, the balance of which is necessary to maintain health.
Dhat syndrome has been described in order to be a cultural guide to local clinical practice, which was necessary because there are several cultural beliefs that associate health problems with sperm loss.
Studies in the field of health care show that about 64% of men who attend psychiatric care facilities for sexual complaints in India are affected by local beliefs.
The incidence of this syndrome is higher in young men with lower socioeconomic strata, although it has also been reported in middle-aged men. Similar complaints associated with vaginal discharge (leukorrhea) have also been reported in women.
As we see, the existence of beliefs associated with sexuality builds mental pathologies in people, of this reality we are aware of problems of this kind.
It would therefore be useful to reflect critically on the influence of culture and society on other psychological problems, such as anxiety or depression, two giants of Western culture.