Genital Retraction Syndrome (Koro): A Case of the Culture-Bound Syndrome in Migrant in Indonesia

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-120-3_15How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Genital Retraction Syndrome; Koro Syndrome; Culture Bound Syndrome

Abstract

Background: The body image of a person's genitalia is pathologically distorted in Koro syndrome. The acute anxiety that comes with the beliefs that the genitalia would shrink and withdraw into the stomach, ultimately causing death, characterizes this dysphoria. The illness has been regarded as an endemic in Southeast Asia, but it also occasionally manifests itself elsewhere in the world.

Case report: A 30 years old married man, Mr. AL, is working on a construction site in Sumatra. One day he went out of town on duty to the Kalimantan area for 30 days. He met a woman and married her by hiding his married status. After completing his work, Mr. AL returned to Bandung to meet his first wife. A week later, the man felt different during intercourse with his wife. He felt his penis was not as usual and could not satisfy his wife. The next day, he observed that his penis was getting smaller. This made him afraid of losing his penis and dying due to the condition.

Conclusion: Because it hasn’t been specifically classed in the ICD or DSM, the diagnostic positioning of the well-known culture-bound syndrome known as Koro is frequently contested. Being culturally suitable is demonstrated by the inability to communicate sorrow in ways that conform to “socially” acceptable norms. Therefore, it is impossible to ignore the influence of migration and the subsequent effects of stress on the psychopathology of diseases specific to particular cultures.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - S. Fitri Ana Ima
AU  - Elmeida Effendy
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/03/31
TI  - Genital Retraction Syndrome (Koro): A Case of the Culture-Bound Syndrome in Migrant in Indonesia
BT  - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Neuroscience, Neurology and Psychiatry (ICONAP 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 96
EP  - 100
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-120-3_15
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-120-3_15
ID  - FitriAnaIma2023
ER  -