'Koro' (genital retraction syndrome): Psychotherapeutic interventions

'Koro' was originally described as a Chinese and Indonesian culture bound syndrome where the patient believed that his penis was shrinking into his abdomen. Recently, a succession of authors have described 24 cases of Koro in Western patients, to which we add our 2 cases. Our psychotherapeutic approach to these patients along with previous case reports indicates that the treatment of these patients should be based first on the treatment of the major underlying psychiatric pathology followed by the treatment of any underlying sexual conflicts. Insight oriented psychotherapy for the sexual conflicts appeared to be helpful to one patient.