Abstract
Purpose: Hwabyung is a culture-bound syndrome in Korea, characterized by emotional stress such as anger, depression, and anxiety. The purpose of the present study was to explore the characteristics of Hwabyung patients, based on constitutional medicine, for their symptoms, duration, and coping styles. Method: Participants were 57 Hwabyung patients selected by Hwabyung criteria. They were also diagnosed for their constitution by doctors specialized in constitutional medicine. Each participant was asked to respond to a variety of items such as cause and duration of stress, symptoms of hwabyung, anger and depression, and coping styles. Eight patients were excluded from the total sample; two male patients and six patients unable to be diagnosed for any particular type of constitution. Thus, final sample was 49 female hwabyung patients, which will be reported in what follow. Result: To begin with, constitutional type revealed significant differences in such coping styles as 'perseverance,' 'positive interpretation,' 'positive comparison,' and 'emotional pacification.' More specifically, post-hoc comparison revealed that Taeeumin(person who have taeeum characteristics) was higher in 'perseverance' compared-to other two types of constitution. Taeumin also revealed higher score than Soeumin(person who have soeum characteristics) in 'positive comparison.' With respect to the marital status, the married compared to the unmarried showed higher score in 'anger-control,' and lower score in 'anger-in.' The married compared to the unmarried, regarding coping styles, also showed higher score in 'accommodation,' but lower score in 'emotional expression.' The duration of hwabyung revealed that the longer duration of hwabyung, the more frequent utilization of 'positive interpretation' and 'emotional pacification. Conclusion: The main purpose, the exploration of hwabyung based on four types of constitution, was not supported, as a whole in the present study. However, marital status and duration of hwabyung appear to influence on emotional stress (e.g., anger) as well as coping styles, suggesting that these variables should be dealt with in future studies on hwabyung.
