Robert Bartholomew | Botany Downs Secondary College (original) (raw)
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In November 2014, The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued their Final Report on an o... more In November 2014, The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued their Final Report on an outbreak of vocal tics/chronic hiccups in approximately 24 students in two Massachusetts schools between 2012-2014, concluding that the episode was within the range of normal prevalence for such disorders. The author obtained over 1,000 Freedom of Information documents and found that the Medical Records Review, which was not made public, had eliminated every possible cause except mass psychogenic illness. This information was conspicuously absent from the Department's Final Report. The author concludes that the outbreak was indeed an episode of mass psychogenic illness, and is critical of the health department for its lack of transparency and integrity.
An outbreak of vocal tics that is remarkable similar to the case in LeRoy in Western New York, h... more An outbreak of vocal tics that is remarkable similar to the case in LeRoy in Western New York, has been recorded at two schools in Massachusetts. While the Massachusetts Department of Public Health publicly denies that anything unusual took place, an analysis of Freedom of Information documents reveals that the health department covered up the episode. Their own medical records review (which was never released to the public) ruled out all possible causes but one: mass hysteria. The Department's final report on the outbreak conspicuously left out the review's findings. Public health departments need to be more open and transparent in their investigations of cases of mass psychogenic illness.
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Jan 15, 2014
The Medical journal of Australia
A government report concluded that the cause of the recent cluster of illness affecting 57 people... more A government report concluded that the cause of the recent cluster of illness affecting 57 people at Melbourne Airport was a "mystery". On reviewing the evidence, I noted the appearance of a constellation of distinct psychogenic features (in the absence of an identifiable pathogenic agent or source), and non-specific symptoms not correlated with any particular illness, strongly suggesting a diagnosis of mass psychogenic illness. Given the time differential between the illness onset in the index case and the initiation of air sampling, and the added factor of the air-conditioning in the terminal being switched to exhaust mode, the possibility that a toxic agent was responsible for making some of the victims ill cannot be completely excluded. Future investigations of similar incidents should, in the absence of clinical or laboratory findings, consider the diagnosis of mass psychogenic illness. Failure to do so can engender avoidable confusion and un-ease among the Australian...
Southern Medical Journal, 2001
... PDF Only. Pokemon Contagion. Zifkin, Benjamin G. MD, CM, FRCPC; Trenité, Dorothee GA Kastelei... more ... PDF Only. Pokemon Contagion. Zifkin, Benjamin G. MD, CM, FRCPC; Trenité, Dorothee GA Kasteleijn-Nolst MD, MPH, PhD. Collapse Box Abstract. An abstract is unavailable. This article is available as a PDF only. Close Window. ...
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice/La Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice pénale, 2007
Episodes of mass psychogenic illness are challenging under the best of circumstances. Typically i... more Episodes of mass psychogenic illness are challenging under the best of circumstances. Typically incubated in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, the initial diagnoses are often contentious, and it takes time for environmental tests to be processed. Even when results ...
The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002
Episodes of mass sociogenic illness are becoming increasingly recognised as a significant health ... more Episodes of mass sociogenic illness are becoming increasingly recognised as a significant health and social problem that is more common than is presently reported. To provide historical continuity with contemporary episodes of mass sociogenic illness in order to gain a broader transcultural and transhistorical understanding of this complex, protean phenomenon. Literature survey to identify historical trends. Mass sociogenic illness mirrors prominent social concerns, changing in relation to context and circumstance. Prior to 1900, reports are dominated by episodes of motor symptoms typified by dissociation, histrionics and psychomotor agitation incubated in an environment of preexisting tension. Twentieth-century reports feature anxiety symptoms that are triggered by sudden exposure to an anxiety-generating agent, most commonly an innocuous odour or food poisoning rumours. From the early 1980s to the present there has been an increasing presence of chemical and biological terrorism themes, climaxing in a sudden shift since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA. A broad understanding of the history of mass sociogenic illness and a knowledge of episode characteristics are useful in the more rapid recognition and treatment of outbreaks.
Surveys outbreaks of mass hysteria in schools around the world.
Examines the debate over the use of Open Access Journals
Examines the recent outbreak of vocal tics at a school in LeRoy, New York which gained national a... more Examines the recent outbreak of vocal tics at a school in LeRoy, New York which gained national attention in 2011-2012, and the possible role of social media in triggering the episode.
Examines an outbreak of mysterious illness at two schools in Massachusetts.
Medical Principles and Practice, 1997
International Journal for The Psychology of Religion, 1998
APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser c... more APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser configuration. - alerts user that their session is about to expire - display, print, save, export, and email selected records - get My ...
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1994
Thirty-seven cases of latah are examined within the author's Malay extended family (N = 1... more Thirty-seven cases of latah are examined within the author's Malay extended family (N = 115). Based on ethnographic data collected and a literature review, cases are readily divisible into two broad categories: habitual (N = 33) and performance (N = 4). The first form represents an infrequent, culturally conditioned habit that is occasionally used as a learned coping strategy in the form of a cathartic stress response to sudden startle with limited secondary benefits (i.e., exhibiting brief verbal obscenity with impunity). In this sense, it is identical to Western swearing. Performers are engaged in conscious, ritualized social gain through the purported exploitation of a neurophysiological potential. The latter process is essentially irrelevant, akin to sneezing or yawning. It is concluded that latah is a social construction of Western-trained universalist scientists. The concept of malingering and fraud in anthropology is critically discussed.
International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 1994
The few isolated reports of individual koro exhibit a symptomatology indicative of major psychiat... more The few isolated reports of individual koro exhibit a symptomatology indicative of major psychiatric conditions (ie. psychosis or affective disorder), and appear unrelated to collective episodes which involve social, cultural, cognitive and physiological factors in the diffusion of koro-related beliefs. Yet, koro 'epidemics' continue to be viewed as exemplifying mass psychopathology or irrationality. An examination of the similarities between koro 'outbreaks' and a sub-category of behaviour which has been loosely labeled as 'mass hysteria', suggests an alternative, non-psychopathological explanation. In reclassifying 'epidemic' koro as a collective misperception rather than a culture-bound syndrome, it is argued that koro is a rational attempt at problem-solving which involves conformity dynamics, perceptual fallibility and the local acceptance of koro-associated folk realities, which are capable of explaining such episodes as normal within any given population.
British Medical Journal, 2001
ABSTRACT
In November 2014, The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued their Final Report on an o... more In November 2014, The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued their Final Report on an outbreak of vocal tics/chronic hiccups in approximately 24 students in two Massachusetts schools between 2012-2014, concluding that the episode was within the range of normal prevalence for such disorders. The author obtained over 1,000 Freedom of Information documents and found that the Medical Records Review, which was not made public, had eliminated every possible cause except mass psychogenic illness. This information was conspicuously absent from the Department's Final Report. The author concludes that the outbreak was indeed an episode of mass psychogenic illness, and is critical of the health department for its lack of transparency and integrity.
An outbreak of vocal tics that is remarkable similar to the case in LeRoy in Western New York, h... more An outbreak of vocal tics that is remarkable similar to the case in LeRoy in Western New York, has been recorded at two schools in Massachusetts. While the Massachusetts Department of Public Health publicly denies that anything unusual took place, an analysis of Freedom of Information documents reveals that the health department covered up the episode. Their own medical records review (which was never released to the public) ruled out all possible causes but one: mass hysteria. The Department's final report on the outbreak conspicuously left out the review's findings. Public health departments need to be more open and transparent in their investigations of cases of mass psychogenic illness.
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Jan 15, 2014
The Medical journal of Australia
A government report concluded that the cause of the recent cluster of illness affecting 57 people... more A government report concluded that the cause of the recent cluster of illness affecting 57 people at Melbourne Airport was a "mystery". On reviewing the evidence, I noted the appearance of a constellation of distinct psychogenic features (in the absence of an identifiable pathogenic agent or source), and non-specific symptoms not correlated with any particular illness, strongly suggesting a diagnosis of mass psychogenic illness. Given the time differential between the illness onset in the index case and the initiation of air sampling, and the added factor of the air-conditioning in the terminal being switched to exhaust mode, the possibility that a toxic agent was responsible for making some of the victims ill cannot be completely excluded. Future investigations of similar incidents should, in the absence of clinical or laboratory findings, consider the diagnosis of mass psychogenic illness. Failure to do so can engender avoidable confusion and un-ease among the Australian...
Southern Medical Journal, 2001
... PDF Only. Pokemon Contagion. Zifkin, Benjamin G. MD, CM, FRCPC; Trenité, Dorothee GA Kastelei... more ... PDF Only. Pokemon Contagion. Zifkin, Benjamin G. MD, CM, FRCPC; Trenité, Dorothee GA Kasteleijn-Nolst MD, MPH, PhD. Collapse Box Abstract. An abstract is unavailable. This article is available as a PDF only. Close Window. ...
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice/La Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice pénale, 2007
Episodes of mass psychogenic illness are challenging under the best of circumstances. Typically i... more Episodes of mass psychogenic illness are challenging under the best of circumstances. Typically incubated in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, the initial diagnoses are often contentious, and it takes time for environmental tests to be processed. Even when results ...
The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002
Episodes of mass sociogenic illness are becoming increasingly recognised as a significant health ... more Episodes of mass sociogenic illness are becoming increasingly recognised as a significant health and social problem that is more common than is presently reported. To provide historical continuity with contemporary episodes of mass sociogenic illness in order to gain a broader transcultural and transhistorical understanding of this complex, protean phenomenon. Literature survey to identify historical trends. Mass sociogenic illness mirrors prominent social concerns, changing in relation to context and circumstance. Prior to 1900, reports are dominated by episodes of motor symptoms typified by dissociation, histrionics and psychomotor agitation incubated in an environment of preexisting tension. Twentieth-century reports feature anxiety symptoms that are triggered by sudden exposure to an anxiety-generating agent, most commonly an innocuous odour or food poisoning rumours. From the early 1980s to the present there has been an increasing presence of chemical and biological terrorism themes, climaxing in a sudden shift since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA. A broad understanding of the history of mass sociogenic illness and a knowledge of episode characteristics are useful in the more rapid recognition and treatment of outbreaks.
Surveys outbreaks of mass hysteria in schools around the world.
Examines the debate over the use of Open Access Journals
Examines the recent outbreak of vocal tics at a school in LeRoy, New York which gained national a... more Examines the recent outbreak of vocal tics at a school in LeRoy, New York which gained national attention in 2011-2012, and the possible role of social media in triggering the episode.
Examines an outbreak of mysterious illness at two schools in Massachusetts.
Medical Principles and Practice, 1997
International Journal for The Psychology of Religion, 1998
APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser c... more APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser configuration. - alerts user that their session is about to expire - display, print, save, export, and email selected records - get My ...
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1994
Thirty-seven cases of latah are examined within the author's Malay extended family (N = 1... more Thirty-seven cases of latah are examined within the author's Malay extended family (N = 115). Based on ethnographic data collected and a literature review, cases are readily divisible into two broad categories: habitual (N = 33) and performance (N = 4). The first form represents an infrequent, culturally conditioned habit that is occasionally used as a learned coping strategy in the form of a cathartic stress response to sudden startle with limited secondary benefits (i.e., exhibiting brief verbal obscenity with impunity). In this sense, it is identical to Western swearing. Performers are engaged in conscious, ritualized social gain through the purported exploitation of a neurophysiological potential. The latter process is essentially irrelevant, akin to sneezing or yawning. It is concluded that latah is a social construction of Western-trained universalist scientists. The concept of malingering and fraud in anthropology is critically discussed.
International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 1994
The few isolated reports of individual koro exhibit a symptomatology indicative of major psychiat... more The few isolated reports of individual koro exhibit a symptomatology indicative of major psychiatric conditions (ie. psychosis or affective disorder), and appear unrelated to collective episodes which involve social, cultural, cognitive and physiological factors in the diffusion of koro-related beliefs. Yet, koro 'epidemics' continue to be viewed as exemplifying mass psychopathology or irrationality. An examination of the similarities between koro 'outbreaks' and a sub-category of behaviour which has been loosely labeled as 'mass hysteria', suggests an alternative, non-psychopathological explanation. In reclassifying 'epidemic' koro as a collective misperception rather than a culture-bound syndrome, it is argued that koro is a rational attempt at problem-solving which involves conformity dynamics, perceptual fallibility and the local acceptance of koro-associated folk realities, which are capable of explaining such episodes as normal within any given population.
British Medical Journal, 2001
ABSTRACT