Current Nosology of Dhat Syndrome and State of Evidence

Abstract

The nosological status of ‘Dhat syndrome’ is unclear. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -5th edition (DSM-5) has withdrawn the separate diagnostic status given to ‘Dhat syndrome’ in the earlier versions and looks at Dhat syndrome as a culturally influenced method of expressing distress. Small variations in presentations noticed across cultures may thus be explained as a function of cultural influences. This is perhaps, contrary to the traditional reliance on descriptive psychopathology and clinical phenomenology as the fulcrum of nosology and diagnosis in psychiatry. The present article does not aim to provide an exhaustive review of ‘Dhat syndrome’. Instead, it looks at the current nosological status of ‘Dhat syndrome’ from a clinical, phenomenological, psychopathological and diagnostic stability standpoint. It is hoped that these insights will contribute to a more informed nosological framework for culture bound syndromes in general and ‘Dhat syndrome’ in particular.