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Biomedical subjects

H Fabrega

Publications and source records attributed to H Fabrega.

113 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
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Comparison of illness episodes in a pluralistic setting.

Episodes of illness in two different groups of women of the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, were compared using a longitudinal-panel design. The data reported are part of a larger study that concentrated on family units from representative cultural groupings of this region. The method of procedure facilitated the retrieval and analysis of different types of symptoms that have salience in the native medical perspectives of the people. Queries regarding symptoms dealt with illnesses that had occurred during the preceding 2 weeks. The duration, in days, and the proportion of an illness taken up with the various types of symptoms were compared in the two groups. The way the women perceived the severity of illness was also analyzed. Group differences in these parameters were observed and discussed. The method of procedure, which reflected a holistic and integrated view of disease, proved flexible, useful, and was easily applied in a field setting.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
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The concept of somatization as a cultural and historical product of Western medicine.

Somatization is handled as a concept that plays an important role in the contemporary clinical theory and practice of psychiatry and general medicine. A distinct biomedical epistemology and model of illness underlies use of the concept and gives it meaning. First, the nature of the assumptions about the medical problems described by the concept are outlined. Then, some of the cultural and historical aspects of Western medical history that shaped the concept and its epistemology are reviewed. The concept is seen to arise as a consequence of the development of the modern ontological view of disease, the shift in the role ascribed to the nervous system and theoretical developments involving the explanation of psychoses through a descriptive language of psychopathology and bodily states. A discussion of non-Western perspectives of illness is pursued in order to highlight the differences in the conditions that led to the evolution of the concept in Western medicine. Some of the theoretical quandaries associated with the concept are briefly reviewed.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗