A term used by Latinos in the United States and Latin America to refer to a severe form of chronic psychosis. The condition is attributed to an inherited vulnerability, to the effect of multiple life difficulties, or to a combination of these factors. Symptoms exhibited include incoherence, agitation, auditory and visual hallucinations, inability to follow rules of social interaction, unpredictability, and possibly violence.
Locura, or ataque de locura, is a culture-bound syndrome found in Latinos in the United States and Latin America. This syndrome is deemed a “severe form of chronic psychosis attributed to an inherited vulnerability, to the effect of life difficulties, or to a combination of both factors”.