Culture and Somatization: A Psycho Social Perspective

Culture shapes the perception and expression of distress .The occurrence of somatization varies across socio cultural groups and seems to be influenced by psychosocial factors. The study was conducted on somatization patients selected from outpatient unit of LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam. The data was collected in a period of three months from September to November, 2008. Subjects fulfilling the criteria of the study were evaluated for socio demographic variables and clinical presentation on semi structured proforma and thereafter the Bradford Somatic Inventory 1, Satisfaction with Life Scale 2 , Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support 3 ,WHO Wellbeing Index (1998) 4 and Perceived Stress Scale 5 were administered. Women have consistently been shown to report more somatic symptoms than men. Perceived social supports and perceived stress was found to have a significant positive correlation with life satisfaction. Wellbeing was found to be poor in the most of the patients and was found to have a significant positive correlation with perceived stress. Somatization is common in all ethno cultural groups and societies studied to date. The importance of demographics, psychosocial functioning, perceived stress, availability of social support was emphasized in the explanation of somatization tendencies among the subjects in the present study.