Am J Psychother. 1991 Jan; 45(1): 14-20.

Semen-loss syndrome: a comparison between Sri Lanka and Japan.

Dewaraja R, Sasaki Y.

Institute of Psychology, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Ken, Japan.

In some cultures semen loss is associated with illness, anxiety, and loss of energy and power. Thirty-five nonpsychotic patients attending a psychiatric clinic in Sri Lanka during one month, attributed their complaints of sexual dysfunction, lethargy, thinness, and miscellaneous aches and pains to semen loss resulting from masturbation or nocturnal emissions. Similar complaints are rare among psychiatric patients in Japan. A survey questionnaire designed to measure negative attitudes and beliefs regarding semen loss was used to measure such attitudes in a patient population and a general university population in Sri Lanka and Japan. The survey disclosed that unlike in Japan, people in Sri Lanka consider semen loss to be detrimental to mental and physical health. Attitudes regarding semen loss were the most negative in the patient population. These results indicate the possibility that culturally held negative attitudes and beliefs may contribute to the high incidence of semen-loss complaints in Sri Lanka, and suggest that attitudes and beliefs may play a role in the way patients express psychopathological symptoms in different societies.