User:Hutchinspam

 'LOCURA'  is a mental or psychotic disorder that originated from Latin America. Locura in America would be similar to Schizophrenia and is considered a culture-bound (CBS) syndrome. Distinctive features or symptoms of the mental disorder include, but are not limited to, delusions, hallucinations, incoherence, distorted perceptions of reality, agitation, unable to follow rules of interaction with others, unpredictable, and possible verbal or phsyical violence. The condition may be inherited from family genetics passed on through parent to offspring. There is a great probability that these symptoms could cause maladaptive behavior characteristics that could create frequent lifestyle difficulties. It is possible that a person could have a combination of these two factors. Culture-bound syndromes, including Locura, are listed in an appendix in the back of the DSM-IV-TR manual.

Culturally Defined Disorder: Locura is a culturally defined mental disorder that is unique to the culture of Latin American's. According to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, Locura is a CBD that might meet Schizophreniform disorder (SFD) criteria. Culturally defined disorders are a a set of features and presumed causes of the syndrome that are local to that community. Another culture-bound syndrome that might meet SFD criteria is amok (Malaysia).

In relation to diagnosis a complication is that the cultural context in which the "psychotic symptoms" are experienced determines whether the behaviors are viewed as pathological or acceptable. When psychotic-like behaviors are expected to occur normally as part of the person's culture or religion, and when the behaviors occur in a culturally positive context such as a religious service, SFD would not be diagnosed.

Psychotherapy-Therapy techniques Latinos, regardless of them fitting in, prefer directive and formal types of therapy over non-directive approaches. Latinos prefer present over future oriented therapy). Therapy techniques that does not go along with Latinos’ preferences and expectations of therapy may slow down Latinos from seeking services or remaining in treatment.

According to the source, the most commonly endorsed mental health services that participants reported utilizing were outpatient psychotherapy (74.3%) and pharmacotherapy (70.0%). Rates of service use were considerably lower for day hospital programs (12.9%), inpatient programs (5.71%), and residential programs (12.9%). Participants also indicated some use of alternative mental health services, including priests and other traditional native healers (24.2%).

Statistics: Of the most commonly endorsed culture-bound syndromes and expressions of emotional distress, the most commonly reported reason for seeking help was nervios (45.1%), followed by decaimiento (27.5%), and agitamiento (22.7%). A few other culture-bound syndromes had higher rates of help-seeking (e.g., espanto and locura), but the number of participants who endorsed these syndromes was too low to allow for meaningful interpretation of the help-seeking rates. Women were significantly more likely than men to report seeking help for ataque de nervios (47.1% vs. 0.0%; p < 0.01, Fisher’s exact test), cólera (37.0% vs. 0.0%; p = 0.04, Fisher’s exact test), and locura (85.7% vs. 0.0%; p = 0.03, Fisher’s exact test).