International experience of hikikomori (prolonged social withdrawal) and its relevance to psychiatric research
Open accessAbstract
When prolonged social withdrawal was first described in Japan as ‘hikikomori’, many studies examining its etiology suggested it to be related to factors unique to Japan and thus a culture-bound syndrome. However, existing research has suffered from a lack of standardised definitions, impeding comparability between studies. We summarise existing research and discuss its relevance to psychiatric practice today.
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Hikikomori still has no strict definition or diagnostic criteria.
“Hikikomori still has no strict definition or diagnostic criteria.”
From Preliminary study of the social withdrawal (hikikomori) spectrum in French adolescents: focusing on the differences in pathology and related factors compared with Japanese adolescents (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
The “Defining hikikomori” section says studies rarely use a standardised definition and identifies unresolved differences in how hikikomori is defined. But it also presents diagnostic criteria proposed in 2020, so the claim that there are no diagnostic criteria is not supported. (LLM, conf=0.89)
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- Authors
- Tan, M. P. J., Lee, W., & Kato, T. A.
- Affiliations
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Devon Partnership NHS Trust (GB)
- Kyushu University (JP)
- Venue
- BJPsych International
- Publisher
- Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Published
- 2020-05-11
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 34-37
- ISSN
- 2056-4740 (ISSN-L)
- 2058-6264
- PMC
- PMC8274427
- OpenAlex
- W3158508530
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 7.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- BJPsych International (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (19dk0307073h0003, JP18dk0307075)
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (ACF-2015-24-002)
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (JP16H06403)
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (16H06403)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- hikikomori, culture-bound syndromes, etiology, psychiatric practice, cross-national comparison
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