Dizziness and Panic in China: Associated Sensations of Zang Fu Organ Disequilibrium

In China, distress is commonlyexperienced as dizziness that can develop intoacute episodes resembling Western panicattacks. These distressing sensations occur ina unique cultural context with a distinctiveset of associated symptoms, beliefs andpurported etiologies. The experience ofillness is informed by traditional Chinesemedicine (TCM), an indigenous theory thatelaborates a system of organ functioning calledzang fu. Depending on the implicatedzang fu organ disequilibrium, dizzinessand panic present with a specific constellationof associated physical and mental symptoms. This paper presents a clinical survey ofpsychiatric disorders that demonstratesdizziness to be characteristic of Chineseanxiety states, most particularly panic. Threespecific cases of dizziness-focused panicascribed to different states of zang fudisequilibrium are described. In a typicalpattern, initial dizziness and associatedsymptoms intensify until they generalize intopanic attacks. The degree of dizziness andpanic corresponds to the state ofdisequilibrium of the zang fu organsystem as well as instability of the social,interpersonal and environmental context of thepatient. This paper elucidates the dynamicinterpretants of dizziness in the Chinesecontext to contribute to a medical anthropologyof this sensation.