PsychEd Shorts 14: Cultural Concepts of Distress

Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers cultural concepts of distress.

The learning objectives for this episode are as follows:

1. Define cultural concepts of distress and describe how they are framed in DSM-5

2. Differentiate cultural concepts of distress from psychiatric diagnoses

3. Appreciate the varied clinical takeaways from cultural concepts of distress

Hosts: Sara Abrahamson (MS3), Grant Yao (MS4), Dr. Angad Singh (PGY2)

Audio editing: Dr. Angad Singh (PGY2)

References:

1. Lewis-Fernández, R., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2019). Cultural concepts of distress and psychiatric disorders: Understanding symptom experience and expression in context. Transcultural Psychiatry, 56(4), 786-803.

2. Patel, R., Ashraf, A., Myers, N., & Bhatt, N. (2025). Cultural Concepts of Distress: A Dive into Presentation and Avenues for Management. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 22(7-9), 14.

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