The psychological problems of non-Japanese people are becoming more outstanding, in accordance with the increase of foreign nationals in Japan. Five illustrative cases of English-speaking patients were analyzed, from the viewpoint of psychosomatic medicine. The most common psychiatric disorders were adjustment disorders, because of the cultural differences and language barriers.

As the first non-Western nation in contemporary history to become a major industrialized economic power, Japan is central to the debate on cultural relativism in psychiatric nosologies, and the study of eating disorders in Japan contributes to the complex discussion of the impact of culture and history on the experience, diagnosis and treatment of such disorders (R. Gordon 2001; Palmer 2001). W...

NZ is considered a bicultural society; Maori make up approx 15% of the population (NZ census 2013). Maori have strong cultural traditions and beliefs around food, with food not only determining physical health but also emotional, psychological and spiritual wellness (HRC report). Food is also strongly linked to customs and cultural values. The implications and understanding of eating disorders ...

Concerns regarding sleep disorders in Hmong immigrants in the US emerged when an astonishingly high mortality rate of Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS) was documented in Hmong men. Stress, genetics, and cardiac abnormalities interacting with disordered sleep were hypothesized as contributing factors to SUNDS. Most recently, sleep apnea has been implicated in nighttime deaths o...

The importance of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) continues to grow, as clinicians and clinical researchers have recognized the impact of the functional gastrointestinal disorders. Limited information is available on the performance of HRQOL questionnaires in Asia. Furthermore, the effect across different cultural settings of functional gastrointestinal disorders on HRQOL has been little...

When considering the problems of the crosscultural applicability ofmental health questionnaires, the influence of cultural factors on the results is of central importance. Zola (1966) has suggested that there are at least two ways in which symptoms usually defined as indicating illness in one population may be ignored in others. First, the estimate of the prevalence of a condition may be mislea...

Darwin-inspired population thinking suggests approaching culture as a population of items of different types, whose relative frequencies may change over time. Three nested subtypes of populational models can be distinguished: evolutionary, selectional and replicative. Substantial progress has been made in the study of cultural evolution by modelling it within the selectional frame. This progres...

A plant disorder is defined as any abnormal plant growth or development. The affected plant does not live up to the normal expectations; it is incapable of carrying out its normal physiological functions to the best of its genetic potential. There are almost an unlimited number of factors that can have a negative affect plants. Disorders can be broken down into two main categories, abiotic diso...

The homicide of children by their parents has been reported across numerous cultural settings around the world and in many historical periods. A comprehensive and systematic understanding of parental child killing can be optimally obtained through a biopsychosociocultural approach. In this article we present the case of a woman who committed neonaticide. We illustrate the cultural formulation o...