Piblokto

PIBLOKTO

Background Info

• Piblokto or pibloktoq can be a psychiatric syndrome that has been initial described by explorers towards arctic regions around the globe.

Signs and Symptoms

• signs of mental disturbance such as
• screaming,
• depression,
• withdrawal from society,
• too little sensitivity to cold,
• and echolalia, during which folks repeat sounds meaninglessly.

• This culture-bound syndrome is possibly linked to vitamin A toxicity (hypervitaminosis A).

• A lot of people also described situations during which folks ate items not normally considered as food, such as feces.

• The native Eskimo diet provides rich sources of vitamin A and is possibly the cause or a causative factor.
• The ingestion of organ meats, liver of arctic fish, mammals, where the vitamin is stored in toxic quantities can be fatal.

• There are several Inuit words similar to “piblokto” which describe various states of mental distress, and it may be that these words were used and explorers misunderstood them.

• Explorers asked the native populations which word they would use to describe the syndrome, and wrote down “pibloktoq” or “piblokto,” but, according to Efron, these words appear to be mistranscriptions or confusions because they do not appear to exist.

• This condition is most often seen in Eskimo women.