Sleep disorders in Chinese culture: experiences from a study of insomnia in Taiwan

• Published in: Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences Vol. 49; no. 2; p. 103
• Main Author: Lee, Y J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia 01.05.1995
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attitude of Health Personnel; China - ethnology; Culture; Double-Blind Method; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Hostility; Humans; Male; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Middle Aged; Neurotic Disorders - complications; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Sampling Studies; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - etiology; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - psychology; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - therapy; Sleep Wake Disorders - etiology; Sleep Wake Disorders - psychology; Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis; Taiwan; Treatment Outcome; China; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1323-1316
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1819.1995.tb01870.x

Traditional Chinese culture-constituted health beliefs continue to influence the Taiwanese people after more than one hundred years of contact with Western medicine. Medicine for sleep disorders, as well as psychiatric medicine, meets some specific difficulties in the professional development. A study of insomnia in Taiwan showed that patients might seek help from a traditional physician and visit a modern hospital at the same stage of medication. General internists and neurologists help to differentiate organic conditions underlying sleep problems but may generalize insomnia to a psychogenic illness. The culture-conditioned attribution of insomnia could also exert certain effects upon pharmacotherapeutic response.