Diagnostic Categories
The diagnosis of depression is included in the CCMD, with many similar criteria to the ICD or DSM, with the core having been translated as 'low spirits'. However, Neurasthenia is a more central diagnosis. Although also found in the ICD, its diagnosis takes a particular form in China, called 'shenjing shuairuo', which emphasizes somatic (bodily) complaints as well as fatigue or depressed feelings. Neurasthenia is a less stigmatizing diagnosis than depression in China, being conceptually distinct from psychiatric labels, and is said to fit well with a tendency to express emotional issues in somatic terms. The concept of neurasthenia as a nervous system disorder is also said to fit well with the traditional Chinese epistemology of disease causation on the basis of disharmony of vital organs and imbalance of qi.
The diagnosis of Schizophrenia is included in the CCMD. It is applied quite readily and broadly in Chinese psychiatry.
Some of the wordings of the diagnosis are different, for example rather than borderline personality disorder as in the DSM, or emotionally unstable personality disorder (borderline type) as in the ICD, the CCMD has impulsive personality disorder.
Diagnoses that are more specific to Chinese or Asian culture, though they may also be outlined in the ICD (or DSM glossary section), include:
- Koro or Genital retraction syndrome: excessive fear of the genitals (and also breasts in women) shrinking or drawing back in to the body.
- Zou huo ru mo (走火入魔) or qigong deviation (氣功偏差): perception of uncontrolled flow of qi in the body.
- Mental disorders due to superstition or witchcraft.
- Travelling psychosis
The CCMD-3 retains a category of 'ego-dystonic homosexuality'.
Read more about this topic: Chinese Classification Of Mental Disorders
Famous quotes containing the word categories:
“All cultural change reduces itself to a difference of categories. All revolutions, whether in the sciences or world history, occur merely because spirit has changed its categories in order to understand and examine what belongs to it, in order to possess and grasp itself in a truer, deeper, more intimate and unified manner.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)