Somatic and Depressive Symptoms in Female Japanese and American Students: A Preliminary Investigation
- 30 June 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Transcultural Psychiatry
- Vol. 43 (2), 275-286
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461506064867
Abstract
The present study examined the relationship between common somatic symptoms and depression in samples of Japanese and American college students. Fifty Japanese and 44 American women completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and rated 56 somatic-distress items for 7 days. Japanese had higher levels of somatic distress than Americans. ANOVA of somatic distress by BDI-level revealed that the High BDI Japanese group reported 26 somatic symptoms (including stomach ache, dizziness, and shoulder pain) with significantly higher means when compared with the low BDI group. High BDI Americans had a significantly higher mean for joint pain compared to the Low BDI group. The importance of the body in transcultural psychiatry is explored, and implications for primary and mental health care are discussed.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Depression among primary care patients with complaints of headache and general fatiguePrimary Care Psychiatry, 2002
- An International Study of the Relation between Somatic Symptoms and DepressionThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1999
- Narratives of Somatizing and Non somatizing Patients in a Primary Care SettingJournal of Health Psychology, 1998
- Strategies for analyzing ecological momentary assessment data.Health Psychology, 1998
- Depressive Disorders in Japanese Primary Care PatientsFamily Practice, 1994
- Somatization of Asians: An Artifact of Western Medicalization?Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review, 1992
- Embodiment as a Paradigm for AnthropologyEthos, 1990
- Reliability and factorial structure of the chinese version of the Beck Depression InventoryJournal of Clinical Psychology, 1990
- Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: Twenty-five years of evaluationClinical Psychology Review, 1988
- Notes towards a description of Social RepresentationsEuropean Journal of Social Psychology, 1988