mystery illness has diagnosis, mass hysteria. i'm sorry i'm not buying this

considering the big deal they made about not giving out a diagnosis, this seems like a pretty "convenient" diagnosis to me

todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com...

I suspect the diagnosis is correct or close. This is not "Tourette's." If you've listened to the girls and are also familiar with the syndrome, this is nowhere close. In fact, I suspect the diagnosis is a bit gentle. These girls are likely faking it.

I've seen this first hand. It does happen.

In Idaho Falls, Idaho about 1997 I think, a truck carrying greywater from a Budweiser plant had a hose break on the highway in front of a trailer park. One of the residents saw it and started going door to door telling people there was a toxic spill. Dozens of them got sick and went to the hospital.

Problem was the truck was carrying water used to rinse Hops which was actually safe to drink as it came from a sterile facility. They took it to farm fields so as not to waste the nutrients it carried.

The same woman sued and the truth came out in court. Nobody was actually sickened and it was a classic case of mass hysteria. Dozens of people believed they were ill just because of one woman who became hysterical for no reason.

This is entirely plausible.

It does seem like a rather unlikely diagnosis doesn't it? Several of the students were pulled from school and still had symptoms at home, NOT while around the others which is what a form of mass hysteria is, the psychological influence of one on another.

Isn't MASS hysteria supposed to be, um MASS? 12 doesn't seem like a very large number given the population of the school, and considering they were all girls, that makes the chances even more unlikely.

I'm no doctor, but something just doesn't add up and this seems to convenient.

I'm sure next they'll say they were all suffering from AD/HD and they need medicine to fix em.

King

Originally posted by schuyler
These girls are likely faking it.

Now that is a more likely explanation.....

King

Controversial and still highly contentious concepts of PANDAS (Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococci) and PITAND (Paediatric Infection-triggered Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders) were introduced by A. J. Allen and Swedo et al. in the late nineties. The premise brought forward by these researchers, that certain mental illnesses (e.g. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, tic disorders including certain cases of Tourette's syndrome) can be caused by an infection with a common infectious agent (designated as "PANDAS": Group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus - GABHS) and (possibly) by other infectious agents (designated as "PITAND"

webpediatrics.com...

Could be something like this.

reply to post by Kingalbrect79


i think one of the girls said she wasn't attending school when she started having symptoms.

Originally posted by Kingalbrect79

Originally posted by schuyler
These girls are likely faking it.

Now that is a more likely explanation.....

King

Would those posters who believe this, or the "mass hysteria" diagnosis take the same position if this was happening to a group of young men of the same age? Somehow, I wonder about that. Just throwing the consideration out there, is all. Please feel free to answer this question truthfully.
It's still an abnormal, weird case, and there was no one "triggering" event as far as I've read. I hope the case gets revisited from time to time, to see if they have recovered or developed other physiological problems.