Culture-Bound Syndromes: Hwa-Byung

Young-Joo Park

Hwa-byung (from hwa , meaning fire, and byung , meaning disease) is a Korean folk illness precipitated by a situation that is beyond the power of one's control. Literally, the term means “an illness of fire.” It is categorized as a Korean culture-bound syndrome and translates to anger syndrome in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 4th edition, because its recurrent and specific symptom patterns and pathogenesis do not correspond to a particular diagnostic mental disorder category. The prevalence of hwa-byung is reported to be 4.2% in the general population of Korea and 4.95% among middle-aged Korean women. ...

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