Biomaterial Database

Symptom attribution in cultural perspective. 1994

L J Kirmayer, and A Young, and J M Robbins

Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.

The explanatory model perspective of medical anthropology emphasizes the cultural shaping of individuals' efforts to make sense of their symptoms and suffering. Causal attribution is a pivotal cognitive process in this personal and social construction of meaning. Cultural variations in symptom attribution affect the pathogenesis, course, clinical presentation and outcome of psychiatric disorders. Research suggests that styles of attribution for common somatic symptoms may influence patients' tendency to somatize or psychologize psychiatric disorders in primary care. At the same time, symptom attributions are used to negotiate the sociomoral implications of illness. Recent work in social psychology and medical anthropology emphasizes the roots of attributional processes in bodily and social processes that are highly context-dependent, and hence, must be understood as part of the construction of a local world of meaning. Symptom attributions then may be understood as forms of positioning with both cognitive and social consequences relevant to psychiatric assessment and intervention.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010348	Patient Care Team	Care of patients by a multidisciplinary team usually organized under the leadership of a physician; each member of the team has specific responsibilities and the whole team contributes to the care of the patient.	Health Care Team,Interdisciplinary Health Team,Medical Care Team,Multidisciplinary Care Team,Multidisciplinary Health Team,Healthcare Team,Care Team, Health,Care Team, Medical,Care Team, Multidisciplinary,Care Team, Patient,Care Teams, Health,Care Teams, Patient,Health Care Teams,Health Team, Interdisciplinary,Health Team, Multidisciplinary,Healthcare Teams,Interdisciplinary Health Teams,Medical Care Teams,Multidisciplinary Care Teams,Multidisciplinary Health Teams,Patient Care Teams,Team, Health Care,Team, Healthcare,Team, Interdisciplinary Health,Team, Medical Care,Team, Multidisciplinary Care,Team, Multidisciplinary Health,Team, Patient Care,Teams, Interdisciplinary Health
D011320	Primary Health Care	Care which provides integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. (JAMA 1995;273(3):192)	Primary Care,Primary Healthcare,Care, Primary,Care, Primary Health,Health Care, Primary,Healthcare, Primary
D011602	Psychophysiologic Disorders	A group of disorders characterized by physical symptoms that are affected by emotional factors and involve a single organ system, usually under AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM control. (American Psychiatric Glossary, 1988)	Psychosomatic Disorders,Psychophysiological Disorders,Psychophysiologic Disorder,Psychophysiological Disorder,Psychosomatic Disorder
D003431	Cross-Cultural Comparison	Comparison of various psychological, sociological, or cultural factors in order to assess the similarities or diversities occurring in two or more different cultures or societies.	Transcultural Studies,Comparison, Cross-Cultural,Comparisons, Cross-Cultural,Cross Cultural Comparison,Cross-Cultural Comparisons,Studies, Transcultural,Study, Transcultural,Transcultural Study
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000884	Anthropology, Cultural	Study of social phenomena which characterize the learned, shared, and transmitted social activities of particular ethnic groups with focus on the causes, consequences, and complexities of human social and cultural variability.	Ethnography,Cultural Anthropology,Material Culture,Culture, Material,Ethnographies,Material Cultures
D012803	Sick Role	Set of expectations that exempt persons from responsibility for their illness and exempt them from usual responsibilities.	Role, Sick,Roles, Sick,Sick Roles
D013001	Somatoform Disorders	Disorders having the presence of physical symptoms that suggest a general medical condition but that are not fully explained by another medical condition, by the direct effects of a substance, or by another mental disorder. The MEDICALLY UNEXPLAINED SYMPTOMS must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other areas of functioning. In contrast to FACTITIOUS DISORDERS and MALINGERING, the physical symptoms are not under voluntary control. (APA, DSM-V)	Briquet Syndrome,Pain Disorder,Somatization Disorder,Medically Unexplained Syndrome,Medically Unexplained Syndromes,Disorder, Somatoform,Somatization Disorders,Somatoform Disorder,Syndrome, Briquet,Syndrome, Medically Unexplained,Unexplained Syndrome, Medically