id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
ecj-13637	Dodi, Icilio; Pappalardo, Marco; Veronese, Piero	Hikikomori: a world within a room	2025	2	.pdf	application/pdf	1748	84	36	[Emergency Care Journal 2025; 21:13637] Emergency Care Journal 2025 volume 21:13637 Dear Editor, Hikikomori is a condition characterized by prolonged and extreme social withdrawal lasting at least six months, resulting in substantial functional impairment or distress associated with this isolation.1 While the cultural roots of social withdrawal can be observed in Japanese mythology (e.g., the sun goddess Amaterasu, a paramount deity in Shinto, exemplifies voluntary seclusion), the contemporary phenomenon of hikikomori emerged from what was often termed “truancy” or “school refusal” (futoko) during the 1970s and 1980s. This condition is demon- strating a global spread, with Japan reporting millions of cases, establishing hikikomori as a well-recognized pathological condi- tion within the scientific community and a subject of significant global concern; in Italy, there are estimated between 100,000 and 120,000 individuals affected.4 This condition predominantly impacts males (male-to-female ratio approximately 3:1), with the average duration of social withdrawal typically ranging from one to four years.	cache/ecj-13637.pdf	txt/ecj-13637.txt