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International Journal of Social Psychiatry
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Koro: How Culturally Specific?

Charles Malinick, M.D.

Associate in Psychiatry

Joseph A. Flaherty, M.D.

Psychiatry and Preventive Medicine

Thomas Jobe, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Humanistic Studies From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago

Koro has been described as an acute anxiety state related to the fear of penile shrinkage into the abdomen with resultant death. This partial depersonalization disorder is found primarily among the people of the Malay Archipelago and Southern Chinese, with extremely rare incidences documented in the West. The symptomology of Koro is commonly siad to be linked to ancient Chinese medical beliefs on sexual functioning and is therefore referred to as a culturally bound syndrome. Our paper summarized the case of an American male with Koro-like symptoms. It compares the Western concept of penis loss to the Chinese or Malaysian concept, and then proposes a combined hypothesis for the development of Koro.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 31, No. 1, 67-73 (1985)
DOI: 10.1177/002076408503100109
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 Transcultural PsychiatryHome page
R. E. Bartholomew
The Medicalization of Exotic Deviance: A Sociological Perspective on Epidemic Koro
Transcultural Psychiatry, March 1, 1998; 35(1): 5 - 38.
[Abstract] [PDF]