A chronic epidemic of hysterical blackouts in a comprehensive school.

Mohr, P D; Bond, Michael J.

doi:10.1136/bmj.284.6320.961

Cited by 17 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Benaim et al [31] from a psychological viewpoint and Mohr and Bond [36] from an epidemiological perspective present evidence that there is a conflict worked out in such groups, possibly over some grieving process or loss. The analysis by Mohr and Bond [36] illustrates how the outbreak takes the form of an anniversary reaction in September. Benaim et al [31] show how the trauma of the death of a fellow student following a pregnancy is worked out in a small group of girls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemic Hysteria: School Outbreaks 1973–1993

Sirois¹

1999

Med Princ Pract

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Objective: Increased reporting of outbreaks has brought more familiarity with the syndrome but no more accurate knowledge about the nature and mechanisms of such episodes. As it has become an area for an expanding field of competitive explanations, the review is intended to find any additional epidemiological cues and any clarification about methods of investigating such outbreaks. Methods: The retrieval of data was organized upon a choice to have a homogeneous sample rather than a comprehensive one. Newspapers and sociological sources were left out. A Medline search with cross-referencing was conducted to select the outbreaks limited to the standard school type. Reports were examined from two points of view: the descriptive epidemiological parameters and the mode of reporting the outbreaks. Results: Forty-five episodes were studied. A historic shift in the manifest presentation is apparent: larger groups are involved for a shorter time. A period at risk has been identified: the last 2 months of the school calendar. The peak age of affected children is 12. A downward age spread is present in 14/20 episodes where suitable information is provided. Methods of reporting were classified into four categories: descriptive (n = 24), public health reports (n = 7), case-control (n = 7), case study (n = 7). Diagnosis of exclusion for environmental contamination is still a prevalent mode of reporting but does not make the outbreak intelligible. Conclusion: (1) A two-step approach is suggested: a simple environmental check for short and uneventful outbreaks; an intensive case study for any episode with long duration or recurrence. (2) Two hypotheses for future testing are proposed: a hypothesis of arousal, probably of a benign, age-specific, and sexual nature, in short simple cases; a hypothesis of conflict in the long or recurrent ones.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemic Hysteria: School Outbreaks 1973–1993

Sirois¹

1999

Med Princ Pract

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“…the fears an individual entertains for themselves in relation to a threatening diagnosis) or to cases of mass hysterical illness (e.g. Mohr and Bond, 1982).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Out of the resulting list of 199 articles only those works published in scholarly and professional journals, and only those that included discussion of particular events and/or social (broadly defined for this purpose as 'non technical') aspects of the issue, were retained for review. The sample did not contain references to individual experience (eg, the fears an individual entertains for themselves in relation to a threatening diagnosis) or to cases of mass hysterical illness (eg (Mohr and Bond, 1982).The resulting collection of 158 published retrospectives, investigations, polemics and hypotheticals concerning health scare events was by no means exhaustive (as the absence of avian influenza indicates!). Many of the issues that were raised by authors have large literatures 5 devoted to them that found no representation in it (examples would include decision making theory (Chapman and Sonnenberg, 2000; Cohen and Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society., 2000) and 'risk society' theory (Beck, 1999;Beck and Ritter, 1992)).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Health scares: Professional priorities

Hooker

2010

Health (London)

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Currently, many health scholars are concerned about health scares. But what do they mean by the term 'health scare' -are health scares an identifiable phenomenon, and how do we currently understand their causation and consequences? By collecting and analyzing published articles about events considered to be health scares, this paper maps the current views of scholars on their characteristics and causes. Results show that health scares are generally understood as events characterized by fears of catastrophic consequences but little actual mortality. However, the social and economic impacts of these events have often been severe. This survey shows that health scares can be usefully sorted into 6 categories, each with identifiable internal dynamics, suggesting different communications strategies to achieve resolution in each category. Using the social amplification of risk framework, the conditions under which risk signals were amplified were traced in general terms among major stakeholders. Simple causes for health scare events could not be identified, though some triggers did emerge. Importantly, public ignorance of real risk, media scaremongering, and political inaction could be dismissed as primary explanations, though they were sometimes factors in scare events. Implications for risk communication and for future research on risk and public health are discussed. Keywords:Health scare, Social amplification of risk, Expert, Media, Risk controversyIn the age of SARS and 'mad cow' (BSE -bovine spongiform encephalitis) disease, many health professionals in both government and academe worry about what they refer to as 'health scares'. Exactly what these are is, however, unclear. Are they small risks falsely judged as large, as were fluoride additives to water -or alternatively a form of 'health panic' (Moynihan, Heath, and Henry, 2002;Rail and Beausoleil, 2003) or moral panic (Ungar, 2001, McRobbie andThornton, 1995)? The colloquialism seems often to be an umbrella term for a raft of different concerns: sometimes of governments meeting public demands to spend vast sums on protections against negligible risks, and yet at other times of government failure to commit 2 sufficient resources to protect against others risks; of panicky public reactions to media beatups, and yet also of public ignorance of highly damaging risks; of the failure to identify and control the pandemic of influenza feared to be coming, and simultaneously that planning for it will end up costing more than we wish it to in terms of lost revenue, or public mistrust or complacency, or the shunning of particular cultural groups. In particular there are concerns about the enormous political and economic costs of certain scare situations, so disproportionate do they seem when compared to the actual mortality attributable to, for example, SARS or anthrax or 'new variant' Creuzfeld-Jakob disease (nvCJD) (Skinner, 2004).The first aim of this paper is to use the extant literature to work out what scholars mean by the term 'health scare'. Because ther...

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“…For example, in a report on a 21 month-long epidemic of blackouts in a British comprehensive school, Mohr and Bond (1982) suggest that the epidemic was precipitated by blackouts in a single girl whose father had recently died. They describe those most severely affected by this outbreak as &dquo;disturbed girls and those from single-parent families or living with a relative with chronic illness&dquo; (p. 962).…”

Section: Etiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pseudoseizures in Social and Cultural Context

Yeh¹

1996

Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review

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Pseudoseizures remain a common form of conversion symp tom worldwide, particularly among patients with co-existing epilepsy. This paper reviews current biomedical diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to pseudoseizures. It then com pares the individual-centred psychopathological accounts of pseudoseizures in biomedicine with anthropological accounts of other dissociative phenomena including behaviour in some possession cults. Two cases of pseudoseizures from a Japanese neuropsychiatric hospital illustrate the role of family, social and political-economic factors in chronicity. These examples demonstrate the need for a social perspective in research on pseudoseizures.

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A chronic epidemic of hysterical blackouts in a comprehensive school.

Cited by 17 publications

References 11 publications

Epidemic Hysteria: School Outbreaks 1973–1993

Epidemic Hysteria: School Outbreaks 1973–1993

Health scares: Professional priorities

Pseudoseizures in Social and Cultural Context

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