The interplay between culture and mental illness has been studied intensely over many years and as a result the researchers involved have become aware of a wide variety of culturally sensitive issues surrounding specific forms of mental health problems. Greater demands than ever before are being placed on doctors and psychiatrists; in part due to the current free and easy movement of people between countries which means that they "must treat, patients from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds."(Gaw 2001: 73-74) As a result, some societies are experiencing illnesses previously unknown to them and the diagnostic element of psychiatry is being mired with alternative symptom presentation and alternative manifestations of illnesses.
Cross-cultural understanding has considerable implications when diagnosing culture bound syndromes (CBSs). The International Statistical Classification of Diseases-10(ICD-10) states that CBSs share two principle features: That they are not easily accommodated by the categories in established and internationally used psychiatric classifications; and they were first described in, and subsequently closely associated with, a particular population or cultural area.
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