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RETURN TO THE WORLD SCIENCE HOME PAGE "Mass hysteria" is alive and well, researchers say
Sept.
6,
2004
In medieval times, the way these epidodes were handled was, well, medieval. They could end with accusations of witchcraft and burnings at the stake. Today, researchers call these events "mass hysteria" and no longer attribute them to supernatural forces. Yet the phenomenon is alive and well, they say. For instance, a paper in the August issue of the research journal Archives of Neurology described a group of about 10 students at a small North Carolina, U.S.A. high school who recently experienced odd fits similar to seizures or panic attacks. Yet the attacks had features uncharacteristic of seizures: for instance, students recovered too slowly, and attacks subsided when the students were far apart, as during holidays. The events were deeply upsetting to the school community and in one case contributed to the divorce of the parents of an affected student, wrote the researchers, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine, N.C. Brain scans revealed the students' symptoms were real, the researchers said, and although the explanation remains elusive, clinicians and the public need to be aware of the phenomenon in order to reduce strain on communities and the number of incorrect diagnoses. "Prompt recognition of mass hysteria allows physicians to avoid unnecessary tests and treatments and to reassure those affected as well as the general public," the researchers wrote. Further research will be needed to explain the underlying cause of the problem, they added. —EJL
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