The latest Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry is a special issue on “Trauma and Idioms of Distress,” co-edited by Devon E. Hinton and Roberto Lewis-Fernández, who write that the issue “focuses on the role played by idioms of distress in the local trauma ontology, the associations between the idioms and psychiatric disorders occurring in the context of trauma and the mechanisms by which the idioms profoundly influence the personal and interpersonal course of trauma-related disorders,” (2010).  In addition to a number of articles reporting on ethnographic and clinical research, the issue includes a reflection by Mark Nichter, who first developed the concept of idioms of distress during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Idioms of Distress Among Trauma Survivors: Subtypes and Clinical Utility
Devon E. Hinton and Roberto Lewis-Fernández

Association of Trauma-Related Disorders and Dissociation with Four Idioms of Distress Among Latino Psychiatric Outpatients
Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Magdaliz Gorritz, Greer A. Raggio, Clara Peláez, Henian Chen and Peter J. Guarnaccia

Khyâl Attacks: A Key Idiom of Distress Among Traumatized Cambodia Refugees
Devon E. Hinton, Vuth Pich, Luana Marques, Angela Nickerson and Mark H. Pollack

Llaki and Ñakary: Idioms of Distress and Suffering Among the Highland Quechua in the Peruvian Andes
Duncan Pedersen, Hanna Kienzler and Jeffrey Gamarra

Kiyang-yang, a West-African Postwar Idiom of Distress (open access)
Joop T. de Jong and Ria Reis

Nepali Concepts of Psychological Trauma: The Role of Idioms of Distress, Ethnopsychology and Ethnophysiology in Alleviating Suffering and Preventing Stigma
Brandon A. Kohrt and Daniel J. Hruschka

Trauma and Humanitarian Translation in Liberia: The Tale of Open Mole
Sharon Alane Abramowitz

Dissociative Symptoms and Reported Trauma Among Patients with Spirit Possession and Matched Healthy Controls in Uganda  (open access)
Marjolein van Duijl, Ellert Nijenhuis, Ivan H. Komproe, Hajo B. P. E. Gernaat and Joop T. de Jong

Idioms of Distress Revisited
Mark Nichter