User:Hmdaniels/sandbox

HISTORY AND SYMPTOMS:

Zar is a culture bound syndrome commonly found in north African and middle eastern areas, places such as Egypt, Sudan, Iran. This syndrome is the experience of a person having spirits within them. The people will experince symptoms such as but not limited too, shouting, laughing, crying, singing, or even hitting their heads against walls and other objects, other symptoms include the person may become apathetic, withdrawn, and fail to carry out daily tasks. Zar is widely known as a type of healing cult, it appears that the majority of the possessing spirits are male, while many of those actively possessed are women. People may also experince language barriers, becaue people that experince zar sometimes talk in a jibbersh that others can not understand.

AREAS MOST EFFECTED:

Individuals with characteristics of zar most commonly are from Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.[Louw]

SOURCES:

The Zar ceremony, Zar, Heba Fatteen Bazzari, Tour Egypt, no date listed http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/zar.htm

Possession by the ' Zar' among Ethiopian Immigrants to Israel, psychopathology or culture bound syndrome?, Zar, Grisaru N, Budowski D, Witzium E, Psychopathology. 1997; 3D, (4):223-33 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9239794

Trance and possession states, Zar, Extract from Psychology: An Introduction for Students in Southern Africa by Louw, DA and Edwards, DJA (1997) Heinemann: Johannesburg http://www.health24.com/mind/Culturebound_syndromes/1284-1304,13259.asp

Psychology: An Introduction for Students in Southern Africa by Louw, DA and Edwards, DJA (1997) Heinemann: Johannesburg