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'Mass hysteria' caused illness outbreak
Posted
1-17-2000 McMinnville, Tenn. A "mystery illness" that sickened 170 Tennessee high school students and their teachers in November 1998 was not caused by toxic fumes, but rather a case of mass hysteria, according to a report published in the Jan. 13 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. "We were unable to find a medical or environmental explanation for the reported illnesses," concluded researchers from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On Nov. 12, 1998, a teacher at Warren County High School in McMinnville, Tenn., complained of headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath, and nausea after detecting a "gasoline-like" odor in her classroom. "Similar symptoms soon developed in several students in her room," the researchers related, and "as the classroom was being evacuated, more students reported symptoms, and a school-wide fire alarm was sounded." Overall, 99 students and staff were sent to local hospital emergency rooms with symptoms; all were discharged within 24 hours as their symptoms subsided. The outbreak received extensive media attention, and the school was closed and then reopened five days later. Upon re-admittance to the school, another 71 individuals complained of illness and were sent to emergency care. After a thorough examination, investigators concluded that the "environmental evaluation of the school revealed no source of potential toxins that could have caused the outbreak." They have labeled the event a case of psychogenic illness —"a social phenomenon, often occurring among otherwise healthy people who suddenly believe they have been made ill by some external factor." "Outbreaks of mass psychogenic illness are probably more common than currently recognized," said the authors, adding that, in the modern age, "dramatic and prolonged media coverage frequently enhances such outbreaks." "In a previous era," wrote Simon Wessely, MD, "spirits and demons oppressed us. Although they have been replaced by our contemporary concern about invisible viruses, chemicals, and toxins, the mechanisms of contagious fear remain the same."
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