This article describes a previously unreported cultural syndrome among Khmer refugees. This common presentation of distress centers on the complaint of a sore neck, the sufferer fearing that wind-and-blood pressure may burst the vessels in this area. During an acute episode, a Khmer endures many - if not all - of the following neck-and-head complaints: headache, blurry vision, a buzzing in the ear, and dizziness. While in the throes of the sore-neck attack, the patient frequently experiences palpitations as well as other symptoms of autonomie arousal, such as diaphoresis, shortness of breath, and trembling. A sufferer of sore-neck episodes often meets panic disorder criteria. In a clinic survey, thirty-five out of eighty-five patients (41%) were found to currently suffer the "sore-neck syndrome" (i.e., to have endured at least one episode in the last month), with almost all of these thirty-five patients (80%) fearing death during the acute event. The sore-neck syndrome represents a common and important way in which distress becomes embodied. The clinician must learn this body language; otherwise, the patient's communication of psychic, interpersonal, and physical pain goes unheard - and grave somatic suffering and disability unattended to - discounted as puzzling somatic complaints and unreasonable obsessionalism about blood pressure.

[No Keywords available]

Panic Disorder refugee psychological aspect Cambodia Massachusetts literature Anecdotes human Refugees middle aged Interview, Psychological neck pain ethnology panic United States Humans syndrome male female Psychophysiologic Disorders psychological rating scale Psychiatric Status Rating Scales prevalence psychologic test Article adult posttraumatic stress disorder Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic psychosomatic disorder pathophysiology