title: Panic and Culture: Hysterike Pnix in the Ancient Greek World.
abstract: Starting perhaps in the second century BCE, and with Hippocratic precedent, ancient medical writers described a condition they called hysterike pnix or "uterine suffocation." This paper argues that uterine suffocation was, in modern terms, a functional somatic syndrome characterized by chronic anxiety and panic attacks. Transcultural psychiatrists have identified and described a number of similar panic-type syndromes in modern populations, and a plausible theory of how they work has been advanced. These insights, applied to the ancient disease of hysterike pnix, demystify the condition and illuminate the experience of the women who suffered from it.
authors.affiliation: Department of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-1602.
authors.forename: Susan P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Mattern
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000209:etiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D018645:Greek World / Q000266:history; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000209:etiology*; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D014599:Uterus / Q000503:physiopathology; D016387:Women's Health / Q000266:history*
keywords: anxiety; hysteria; hysterike pnix; panic; somatization