What is it about?
This article provides a review of psychiatrists’ studies on social withdrawal (hikikomori), bring out the main themes and recurrent problems, and suggest a focus for future research.
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Why is it important?
The results are coherent with the non-inclusion of hikikomori in the DSM-5, and a specific clinical description of hikikomori cannot be found in the existing scientific literature. Hence, the review suggests that hikikomori is not a syndrome, with a precise and specific clinical description, but an idiom of distress. The persons concerned resist psychiatric treatment for several reasons, the major one being that psychiatrists only meet with a minority of hikikomori cases.
Perspectives
I have written three articles about social withdrawal in Japan. 1. School non-attendance and counselling in Japan 2. Review of Hikikomori 3. Narratives of Hikikomori 4. 2016 Hikikomori survey 5. Hikikomori trauma
Dr Nicolas Tajan
National Institute of Mental Health – National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Social withdrawal and psychiatry: A comprehensive review of Hikikomori, Neuropsychiatrie de l Enfance et de l Adolescence, August 2015, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurenf.2015.03.008.
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