Djinnati: Dissociation and Possession Trance Disorder in Baluchistan, Iran

Abstract

This article covers the presentation of djinnati as a culture-bound syndrome and a possession trance disorder. Three studies conducted in Baluchistan, Iran, are presented and reviewed. The first study was of ten patients (one male and nine female, with one female being from Pakistan) who presented as having a discrete identity or entity known as djinn. The symptoms of djinnati are delineated, along with the treatment by local healers. The second study concerned the prevalence of djinnati at the inpatient ward of Baharan Psychiatric Hospital in Zahedan, Iran. The subjects were 150 inpatients (61 male and 89 female) chosen from an admissions pool of 773 patients. Psychodiagnostic interviews by a psychiatrist and a psychologist revealed that 32 of the 150 inpatients had djinnati symptoms. There was also a significant difference between the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) scores for nondjinnati patients (23.85) and the scores of those patients identified as having djinnati symptoms (38.89). Prevalence of djinnati among admitted patients in the hospital during a six-month period was 4 percent. The authors of this study also noted that a history of child abuse had a direct relationship to djinnati presentation in these patients. In addition, gender was an important variable, as more women than men were diagnosed with djinnati symptoms. The third study, on the epidemiology of djinnati, was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Baluchistan rural area using clustering as the method of sampling of 4,000 subjects. The rate of djinnati was about 0.5 percent in the general population and 1 percent among women, with no male djinnati patients found. No significant relationship was found between djinnati presentation and age group or education level. The DES average was significantly higher in patients than in the normal population. Dissociation, possession trance state, culture-bound syndrome, and cross-cultural considerations were considered.