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Sangue Dormido is a culture-bound syndrome found among Portuguese Cape Verde Islanders. It is also known as "sleeping blood." It has a range of neurological symptoms, including pain, numbness, tremors, paralysis, convulsions, stroke, blindness, heart attack, infection, and miscarriage (Medical Dictionary). It seems to also affect immigrants who travel to the United States from the Cape Verde Islands (Trujillo). It is unclear how this syndrome should be evaluated at the present time (VisionandPsychosis.net). The original description of the condition was published in Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry in 1981. The clinical case report was of a 48-year old Cape Verdean woman who was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for treatment of paralysis in the right arm, numbness, tremors, and pain. These symptoms developed following wrist fractures and resisted two years of treatment in the patient’s homeland, treatment that included calming medication, incisions to drain the blood, and prayer for healing. Following extensive diagnostic testing, a culturally sensitive treatment plan was implemented in a major hospital. The patient’s symptoms began to resolve as soon as a day following her treatment initiation. “Culture-bound syndromes” are controversial and highly scrutinized, and typically further studies are needed to follow up individual case studies to determine whether a pattern of illness exists in a population or is restricted to individuals (Ellison, Like).

SOURCES

James Ellison, Robert Like. "Sangue Dormido." Accessed June 26, 2012 from The Encyclopedia of Immigrant Healing. 

VisionAndPsychosis.net. Culture Bound Syndrome. Accessed June 19, 2012 from visionandpsychosis.net. 

Manuel Trujillo, MD. Multicultural Aspects of Mental Health. Accessed June 19, 2012 from Primary Psychiatry. 

Medical Dictionary. Sangue Dormido. Accessed June 19, 2012. 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006021806764 Sangue Dormido should perhaps be listed as an "idiom of distress" rather than a mental event. (By: Amanda Buck)