TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Women and hysteria in the history of mental health
JO  - Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health
A1  - Tasca, Cecilia
A1  - Rapetti, Mariangela
A1  - Carta, Mauro Giovanni
A1  - Fadda, Bianca
SP  - 110
EP  - 119
VL  - 8
IS  - 
N2  - Hysteria is undoubtedly the first mental disorder attributable to women, accurately described in the second millennium BC, and until Freud considered an exclusively female disease. Over 4000 years of history, this disease was considered from two perspectives: scientific and demonological. It was cured with herbs, sex or sexual abstinence, punished and purified with fire for its association with sorcery and finally, clinically studied as a disease and treated with innovative therapies. However, even at the end of 19(th) century, scientific innovation had still not reached some places, where the only known therapies were those proposed by Galen. During the 20(th) century several studies postulated the decline of hysteria amongst occidental patients (both women and men) and the escalating of this disorder in non-Western countries. The concept of hysterical neurosis is deleted with the 1980 DSM-III. The evolution of these diseases seems to be a factor linked with social "westernization", and examining under what conditions the symptoms first became common in different societies became a priority for recent studies over risk factor.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1745-0179
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1745017901208010110
ID  - ref1
ER  -