Susto

Abstract: Ethnicity and Medical Care equips health professionals with the ethnographic data they need to deliver better health care within American communities of urban blacks, Chinese, Haitians, Italians, Mexicans, Navajos, and Puerto Ricans. Each chapter, dealing in turn with one of these seven American subcultures, reviews the available demographic and epidemiological data and examines sociocultural influences on each major phase of illness. Topics range from culture-specific syndromes such as susto or ?evil eye,? to concepts of disease based on blood perturbations or God's punishment, to lay-referral networks, consultation of mainstream and non-mainstream sources of medical care, and adherence to treatment regimens. But ethnic behavior often entails general styles of interaction?attitudes toward authority figures, sex-role allocations, and ways of expressing emotion and asking for help?that are carried over into the healthcare setting. Accordingly, Ethnicity and Medical Care also offers general guidelines for providing more personalized, culturally relevant care for any ethnically affiliated patient.

Abstract: Introduction: What is Medical Anthropology? P. J. Brown, R. Barrett, and M. Padilla, "Medical Anthropologies: An Introduction to the Fields" PART I: UNDERSTANDING MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Biosocial Approaches Evolution, Health, and Medicine S. B. Eaton, M. Shostak, and M. Konner, "Stone-agers in the Fast Lane" L. Oliwenstein, "Dr. Darwin" Human Biological Variation R. Martorell, "Body Size, Adaptation, and Function" C. Ritenbaugh and C. S. Goodby, "Beyond the Thrifty Gene: Metabolic Implications of Prehistoric Migration into the New World" M. Boutte, "Genetic Prophecy: Promises and Perils for Late-Onset Diseases" Bioarchaeology and History G. Armelagos, "Health and Disease in Prehistoric Populations in Transition" T. McKeown, "Determinants of Health" Cultural and Political Ecologies of Disease P. J. Brown, "Cultural Adaptations to Endemic Malaria in Sardinia" R. Desowitz, "The Fly That Would Be King" P. Farmer, "Social Inequalities and Emerging Infectious Diseases" Cultural Approaches Belief and Ethnomedical Systems G. M. Foster, "Disease Etiologies in Nonwestern Medical Systems" K. Finkler, "Sacred Healing and Biomedicine Compared" C. Levi-Strauss, "The Sorcerer and His Magic" R. Hahn, "The Nocebo Phenomenon: Concept, Evidence, and Implications for Public Health" The Social Construction of Illness and the Social Production of Health N. Waxler, "Learning to be a Leper: A Case Study in the Social Construction of Illness" L. Clark, "Gender and Generation in Poor Women's Household Health Production Experience" Healers in Cross-Cultural Perspective M. F. Brown, "The Dark Side of Shaman" M. Konner, "Transcendental Medication" P. Singer, "'Psychic Surgery': Close Observation of a Popular Healing Practice" Culture, Illness, and Mental Health A. Kleinman, "Do Psychiatric Disorders Differ in Different Cultures?" A. Rubel, "The Epidemiology of a Folk Illness: Susto in Hispanic America" Critical Medical Anthropology N. Scheper-Hughes and M. M. Lock, "The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology" M. Singer, "Beyond the Ivory Tower: Critical Praxis in Medical Anthropology" PART II: APPLYING MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Case Studies in Explanatory Models W. Dressler, "Ethnomedical Beliefs and Patient Adherence to a Treatment Regimen: A St. Lucian Example" Centers for Disease Control: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, "Health Beliefs and Compliance with Prescribed Medication among Black Women--New Orleans 1985-86" M. Trawick, "An Ayurvedic Theory of Cancer" A. Harwood, "The Hot-Cold Theory of Disease: Implications for the Treatment of Puerto-Rican Patients" Ethnicity and Health Care R. A. Hahn, "The State of Federal Health Statistics on Racial and Ethnic Groups" M. S. Bates and W. T. Edwards, "Ethnic Variations in the Chronic Pain Experience" R. Trotter, "A Case of Lead Poisoning from Folk Remedies" M. Singer et al., "Why Does Juan Garcia Have a Drinking Problem?" E. A. Berlin and W. C. Fowkes, "A Teaching Framework for Cross-Cultural Health Care" Stigma and Coping with Chronic Illness G. Becker, "Coping with Stigma: Lifelong Adaptation of Deaf People" M. C. Inhorn, "Genital Herpes: An Ethnographic Inquiry into Being Discreditable in American Society" R. W. Murphy, "The Damaged Self" P. Farmer and A. Kleinmen, "AIDS as Human Suffering" Gender and Women's Health E. Martin, "Medical Metaphors of Women's Bodies: Menstruation and Menopause" C. West, "Routine Complications: Troubles with Talk between Doctors and Patients" R. Rapp, "Accounting for Amniocentesis" N. Scheper-Hughes, "Culture, Scarcity, and Maternal Thinking" Culture and Nutrition: Fat and Thin K. A. Dettwyler, "The Biocultural Approach in Nutritional Anthropology: Case Studies of Malnutrition in Mali" P. J. Brown and M. Konner, "An Anthropological Perspective on Obesity" International Health Issues and Program M. Nichter and E. Cartwright, "Saving the Children for the Tobacco Industry" C. Kendall, D. Foote, and R. Martorell, "Ethnomedicine and Oral Rehydration Therapy" K. Heggenhougen, "The Epidemiology of Functional Apartheid and Human Rights Abuses"

Abstract: Widespread throughout Latin America, susto is a folk illness associated with a broad array of symptoms. It is considered by susceptible populations to be a sickness caused by the separation of soul and body which is precipitated by a supernatural force. Most studies of culture-bound diseases have relied on descriptive approaches that focus on pathologies derived from medical textbooks. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach, looking for explanations of susto in the interaction of social, physiological, and psychological factors.

Abstract: To systematically study and document regional variations in descriptions of nervios, we undertook a multisite comparative study of the illness among Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Guatemalans. We also conducted a parallel study on susto (Weller et al. 2002, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 26(4): 449-472), which allows for a systematic comparison of these illnesses across sites. The focus of this paper is inter- and intracultural variations in descriptions in four Latino populations of the causes, symptoms, and treatments of nervios, as well as similarities and differences between nervios and susto in these same communities. We found agreement among all four samples on a core description of nervios, as well as some overlap in aspects of nervios and susto. However, nervios is a much broader illness, related more to continual stresses. In contrast, susto seems to be related to a single stressful event.