Hikikomori Is Most Associated With Interpersonal Relationships, Followed by Suicide Risks: A Secondary Analysis of a National Cross-Sectional Study

ConclusionsOur study is one of the very few population studies that have aimed to identify the social and health characteristics associated with being hikikomori. At a glance, people with hikikomori symptoms can also have other psychiatric symptoms, such as a suicide risk, OCBs, and addictive tendencies, and many of these psychiatric symptoms can be explained by interpersonal difficulties and a previous history of psychiatric treatment, if we are willing to make a closer examination. In contrast to some specialists’ opinions, hikikomori is not more common in urban areas than in rural areas. Being a man, having a history of dropping out from the educational system, and having a history of psychiatric treatment are contributing factors for hikikomori. By contrast, living in residential areas with many business and service industries can be a protective factor for hikikomori. Future studies should seek to verify the consistency of these findings, possibly using a cohort design.Ethics StatementThis study was approved by the ethics committee of Akita University Graduate School of Medicine.Author ContributionsRY contributed to the conception and design of the study, organized the database, performed the statistical analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. KN edited sections of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the manuscript revision and read and approved the submitted version.FundingThis study is funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Scienc...
Source: Frontiers in Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research