Mass psychogenic illness

Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for contagion.^[1] It is the rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group, originating from a nervous system disturbance involving excitation, loss, or alteration of function, whereby physical complaints that are exhibited unconsciously have no corresponding organic causes that are known.^[2]

"Mass hysteria" redirects here. For the band, see Mass Hysteria (band).

Mass psychogenic illness

Mass hysteria, epidemic hysteria, mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder

Psychiatry, clinical psychology

Headache, dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, cough, fatigue, sore throat

Childhood or adolescence, female sex, intense media coverage

Actual diseases, mass delusions, somatic symptom disorder

symptoms that have no plausible organic basis;

symptoms that are transient and benign;

symptoms with rapid onset and recovery;

occurrence in a segregated group;

the presence of extraordinary anxiety;

symptoms that are spread via sight, sound or oral communication;

a spread that moves down the age scale, beginning with older or higher-status people;

Strain – those affected were more likely to work overtime frequently and provide the majority of the family income. Many were married with children.

Affected persons tended to deny their difficulties. Kerchoff postulates that such were "less likely to cope successfully under conditions of strain."

Results seemed consistent with a model of . Groups of affected persons tended to have strong social ties.

social contagion

1998 East Java ninja scare

Body-centred countertransference

– Spread of depression among a social group

Contagious depression

– Psychiatric and somatic symptoms experienced within a specific culture

Culture-bound syndrome

– Diagnostic category used in some psychiatric classification systems

Conversion disorder

– Moral panic and series of prosecutions, one example of satanic panic

Day-care sex-abuse hysteria

– Shared psychosis, a psychiatric syndrome (from the French for "a madness shared by two")

Folie à deux

Group Think

– Tendency to adopt group beliefs and behaviors

Herd mentality

– somatoform disorder that involves an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness

Hypochondriasis

– effect in which a group exhibits physical symptoms due to a psychological cause

Hysterical contagion

– Widespread moral panic alleging abuse

Satanic panic

– Symptoms of illness attributed to a building

Sick building syndrome

Social Contagion

Ali-Gombe, A. et al. "Mass hysteria: one syndrome or two?" British Journal of Psychiatry 1997; 170 387–78. Web. 17 Dec. 2009.

Balaratnasingam, Sivasankaran and Aleksandar Janca. "Mass hysteria revisited." Current Opinion in Psychiatry 19(2) (2006): 171–74. Research Gate. Web. 28 Nov. 2009.

Bartholomew, Robert. Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. 2001. Print.

Bartholomew, Robert and Simon Wessely. "Protean nature of mass sociogenic illness." The British Journal of Psychiatry 2002; 180: 300–06. Web. 28 Nov. 2009.

[2]

Jones, Timothy. "Mass Psychogenic Illness: Role of the Individual Physician." American Family Physician. American Family of Family Physicians: 15 Dec. 2000. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine

[3]

Kerchoff, Alan C. "Analyzing a Case of Mass Psychogenic Illness." Mass Psychogenic Illness: A Social Psychological Analysis. Ed. Colligan et al. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1982. 5–19. Print.

Mass, Weir E. "Mass sociogenic illness." CMAJ 2005; 172: 36. Web. 14 Dec. 2009.

[4]

Moss, P. D. and C. P. McEvedy. "An epidemic of overbreathing among schoolgirls." British Medical Journal 2(5525) (1966):1295–1300. Web. 17 Dec. 2009.

Phoon, W. H. "Outbreaks of Mass Hysteria at Workplaces in Singapore: Some Patterns and Modes of Presentation." Mass Psychogenic Illness: A Social Psychological Analysis. Ed. Colligan et al. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1982. 21–31. Print.

Radovanovic, Z (1996). "On the Origin of Mass Casualty Incidents in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, in 1990". European Journal of Epidemiology. 12 (1): 101–13. :10.1007/bf00144437. PMID 8817187. S2CID 7676802.

doi

Singer, Jerome. "Yes Virginia, There Really Is a Mass Psychogenic Illness." Mass Psychogenic Illness: A Social Psychological Analysis. Ed. Colligan et al. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1982. 21–31. Print.

Stahl, Sydney; Lebedun, Morty (1974). "Mystery Gas: An Analysis of Mass Hysteria". Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 15 (1): 44–50. :10.2307/2136925. JSTOR 2136925. PMID 4464323.

doi

Waller, John (2009). . The Psychologist. 22 (7): 644–47.

"Looking Back: Dancing plagues and mass hysteria"

Watson, Rory (1999-07-17). . British Medical Journal. 319 (7203): 146. doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7203.146a. PMC 1174603. PMID 10406745.

"Coca-Cola health scare may be mass sociogenic illness"

Weir, Erica (2005-01-04). . Canadian Medical Association Journal. 172 (1): 36. doi:10.1503/cmaj.045027. PMC 543940. PMID 15632400.

"Mass sociogenic illness"

Wessely, Simon (1987). "Mass hysteria: two syndromes?". Psychological Medicine. 17 (1): 109–20. :10.1017/s0033291700013027. PMID 3575566. S2CID 32597423.

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Informational notes

Citations

Bibliography

Mass psychogenic illness