Begum
You may know a typical Begum. She is an Asian woman suffering from non-specific pains and weakness. When questioned, pains change places. On examination, nothing is apparently wrong. Investigations are normal. Begum comes to casualty with her large extended family who interpret for her, insisting that this is sorted out once and for all. Gynaecologists see Begum and diagnose functional dyspareunia. Perhaps you observed her endoscopy result and were taught about functional dyspepsia. Or perhaps you met her in the professor’s neurology outpatient teaching clinic where her numbness disobeyed dermatomes. She visits many different departments and gets increasingly nervous. Doctors become irritated. Students are perplexed. Twenty years ago, someone wrote her up: "The Begum syndrome."1
I know a few women who do suffer from this random moving around the body aches and pains.
Do you think asian women do tend to suffer like this?
I think most are probabley depressed but don’t know it so they visit the doctor saying this hurts and that hurts, the family allow her to feed on this notion by saying that’s it bed rest for you for the next 6 months and doing htis doesn’t help the situation it only makes it worse. I have seen this so many times, if you just reassure the same person that this is all you need to do and you will be fine then the reults are reversed and they do actually feel better in themselves.
Wow so there is a diagnosis, my friend has this and she is only 25. About a year after she got married she started suffering all these aches and pains, she has had numerous tests done but no doctor could diagnose her. She lives with her inlaws (and to be fair they are a bit mean to her, they used her as a cash cow and took every penny of her wages) and for the last 6 months she has been confined to her bed. I feel like I am visiting my great grandma when I go to see her.
Begum
You may know a typical Begum. She is an Asian woman suffering from non-specific pains and weakness. When questioned, pains change places. On examination, nothing is apparently wrong. Investigations are normal. Begum comes to casualty with her large extended family who interpret for her, insisting that this is sorted out once and for all. Gynaecologists see Begum and diagnose functional dyspareunia. Perhaps you observed her endoscopy result and were taught about functional dyspepsia. Or perhaps you met her in the professor's neurology outpatient teaching clinic where her numbness disobeyed dermatomes. She visits many different departments and gets increasingly nervous. Doctors become irritated. Students are perplexed. Twenty years ago, someone wrote her up: "The Begum syndrome."1
I know a few women who do suffer from this random moving around the body aches and pains.
Do you think asian women do tend to suffer like this?
I think most are probabley depressed but don't know it so they visit the doctor saying this hurts and that hurts, the family allow her to feed on this notion by saying that's it bed rest for you for the next 6 months and doing htis doesn't help the situation it only makes it worse. I have seen this so many times, if you just reassure the same person that this is all you need to do and you will be fine then the reults are reversed and they do actually feel better in themselves.
No. Not just asian women. Any woman from any background can have that.
The hypochondriasis (or psychosomatic disorder) you described is not an asian/desi begum syndrome.
Yea, I`ve never heard of begum syndrome but I do remember from my psych class a disorder where the person suffers from pains and aches but there is no medical problem or just not one that can be diagnosed. I believe it was called somatoform disorder in the DSM.
