This report aims to evaluate symptomatological characteristics of the Korean depressives as compared with those of other countries.
One hundred and seventy there cases used in this study were sampled from two out-patient clincis of the two University Hospitals in Seoul and evaluated with Hamilton´s rating scale for depression. Data of 272 England subjects with primary depression reported by Hamilton, 33 American subjects with endogenous depression by Winokur and others and 100 Indian subjects with pri mary depression by Teja and others were used for the comparison.
The Korean deprsesives revealed guilt and suicidal wish equivalent to those of England and American subjects. The guilt of Korean subject was doubled in percentage as compared with that of Indian, This finding is a sharp contrast to the previous researches those the guilt and suicide could be scarcely found among the non-Western cultures. The guilt of Korean depressive seemed to be rather socially or familially oriented than religiously did. On the other, the guilt and suicidal wish were usually masked by superficial somatic complaints.
It was also noted that somatic symptoms such as somatic anxiety, gastrointestinal symptoms, general somatic symptoms, genital syptoms, loss of weight, hypochondria were manifest in a significantly larger percentage or higher score of Korean depressives.
Possible explanations for the above findings have been offered from the view point of cultural psychiatry.
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