Mass hysteria outbreak reported in N.Y. town: What does it mean?

Leroy High School

(CBS) Why did 12 teens from the same town in upstate N.Y. all begin to experience odd symptoms at once? Doctors say it's an outbreak of mass hysteria.

Last fall, 12 teenage girls from LeRoy Junior-Senior High School - located in a town about an hour outside of Buffalo, N.Y. - began to show symptoms similar to those of Tourette's syndrome, including painful shaking and jerking their necks, Gothamist reported.

Doctors were initially baffled. The condition was so bad for at least one of the girls that she has yet to return to school. School and state officials investigated the outbreak and school building for several months, and concluded no known environmental substances or infectious agents were found that could have caused the symptoms in the teens.

"We have conclusively ruled out any form of infection or communicable disease and there's no evidence of any environmental factor,'' Dr. Gregory Young of the New York Department of Health told MSNBC.

But not all of the girls' parents were satisfied with the results, and went on the "Today" show to state their case.

"Where's the proof?'' Melisa Phillips, mother of one of the 17-year-olds who came forward with the condition, Thera Sanchez, asked on Today. "Where's the data? Testing they say that all the girls have had, they have not had," she said.

Sanchez, a cheerleader at the high school, took a nap one day last October then woke up with uncontrollable tics and stutters. Sanchez and another girl on the show with symptoms, 16-year-old Katie Krautwurst, said doctors told them their condition was stress-induced.

"They told us it was traumatic, but I really don't think any of us had that traumatic of a life before,' Krautwurst said on Today.

A day after the girls' interview, Dr. Laszlo Mechtler, a neurologist at the DENT Neurologic Institute in Amherst, N.Y. who has treated several of the girls, decided to come forward to offer an explanation to quell the curious masses.

Mechtler's diagnosis? The girls may have a conversion disorder - also known as mass hysteria.

Conversion disorder is a condition in which a person can experience blindness, paralysis, or other neurologic symptoms that can't be explained by another disease. The disorder often occurs because of a "psychological conflict." According to the National Institutes of Health, symptoms of a conversion disorder are thought to resolve a conflict a person feels inside. For example, a woman who believes it's not acceptable to have angry feelings may experience numbness when they get really mad.

Mechtler told USA Today that when a conversion disorder occurs in a large group, its known as a "mass psychogenic illness," because it affects groups of people in the same environment, such as in a classroom or office. That means watching the girls on television won't cause others to experience similar symptoms, he said.

"This is a unique situation, and it is unusual," Mechtler told USA Today.

Although the disorder is psychological in its origins, the symptoms are very much real, experts warned. Dr. David G. Lichter, a clinical professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo, told Buffalo News a mass psychogenic illness is the result of the brain making the body sick, not unlike when people feel nauseous from stage fright.

That doesn't mean all the girls' parents were satisfied with the explanation that stress is causing these debilitating symptoms.

"Obviously, we are all not just accepting that this is a stress thing," one of the girl's father's, Jim Dupont, told Today. "It's heart-wrenching, you fear your daughter's not going to have a normal life."

Will these girls ever be cured? Mechtler told Today that with treatment, "The bottom line is these teenagers will get better."

[Kthrnortega83]

I just don't buy that story. When so many people in a close range have symptoms like that then there has to be a common denominator and I don't think stress is one of them in this situation! I don't believe it. Have these ladies gone to mayo clinic at all? I'm also wondering if maybe they all got a flu shot that was bad or something. I live in Upstate New York and I don't live near them I live near Syracuse area, but I started have similar symptoms like these young ladies back in November of 2008 and literally woke up one morning with every muscle in my body twitching and jerking. It came on all of a sudden and I at one point was told it was stress but there is no way it could be for me! I know how frustrated these ladies are. I still have the problem to this day and it has not stopped. I've had full Neruo evaluations and all my blood work is normal. Its frustrating when you know something is wrong and nobody can give you answers! My heart goes out to these ladies!

[dfazz1]

For shame, how can a diagnosis of Conversion disorder be given when all the girls haven't had testing to rule out all possible physical diagnosis' ?

For shame, The school district needs to make public all testing & the results done so far. ( Keep in mind I know a school in the midwest that did indoor air testing with all the doors & windows open! The kicker was the state health official was present!!)
Show the people in the community what the results were, they have a right to know! And then let a pro like Erin Brockovich come in with her people and do the rest of the testing that needs to be done that the school & state won't do or can't afford to do. There are many pesticides and many chemicals that cause neurological symptoms.

For Shame, jumping at a psychosomatic diagnosis. Teen & kids are
still growing & developing physically, neurologically, psychologically,etc.., therefore they are more suceptible
to environmental exposures, as are children with health problems!
These children & young adults are our first line of defense when it
comes to environmental exposures, meaning they get sick first, then eventually the adults become affected, not always with the same symptoms though. ( Gee I wonder why 6 teachers in one of my kids schools had developed rare brain tumors in only a 10 year span, with no family histories of brain tumors??? I wonder...)

The minute a group of children get sick with similar symptoms it
gives adults a head up that something is wrong. Come on people
these kids need the adults to figure this out for them, not throw the easiest diagnosis at them & tell them it is in their heads.
Has anyone taken a complete in depth environmental history from these girls & their families. Also, don't forget to assess & get an accurate history of the school building & property it is on too! And don't forget any recent pesticides used for critters inside & outside or weeds-- if you don't know the right environmental questions to ask you may never get to the true source
of the problems. Actually environmental health professional should do this history, one that has worked with patients that have had an environmental exposure, this should not be done by someone from the local or state health department.

"Please" to the Laroy Central School District, when people become ill it is time to forget about protecting the schools' &/or districts' good name! Work with the community, parents & accept any outside help that is offered, such as expanded environmental testing by Erin's people. If it is something environmental,
everyone in that building is at risk, not just a few teenage girls!

Don't blow it off by agreeing these girls have psychological problems, just so the school & district can save face & money!!

I could say much more , but really shouldn't have to.
I hope for the sake of the affected young ladies
and anyone else that may become affected by the
situation, the the "powers to be" do what is right !!

[nana405]

42 years of health care experience gives me some nausea over the hysteria in up state New York. The mind is the last frontier, so if the science community can't find a cause let us continue to blame it on something we lack any absolute science to support. how do these girls pet scans look compared to girls who do not have this? why is is gender specific? what studies support such ideas as hysteria. Freud believed in hysteria and believed all our problems related to dysfunctional behavior was all related to our mother, then focus on the family came along and said if a mother chooses to work she damages her children. Spock said children were just little grown ups and only needed a good example set. Physicians give the country a break. All thought and talk and not scientific support create hysteria and i do not believe it is as gender specific as claimed.

[AuthorBookshelf]

Shame on CBS for bringing on all of these doctors to say it's merely psychosomatic. That is insulting to the people going through this difficult situation.

Watching Dr. McViges this morning say that it's related to something as simple as stress, anxiety, and depression was pathetic. Stress, anxiety, and depression are all symptoms of being a teenage girl. If those were the causes, we'd see girls across the country exhibiting these symptoms. This is what happens when you have the wrong specialist on the case ... they are too limited, only seeing things within their well-defined, over-paid little box.

I think the people in Le Roy Central School District need to take a page from The God Complex by Chris Titus. Here's a guy who spent 15 years searching for a cure in Boston, bouncing around between the world's best doctors--140 in total. He eventually found his cure in Chinese medicine - ironically, it was a Chinese doctor who uses a hybrid or Eastern and Western medicine. He beat the Western doctors at their own game. Anyhow, he weaves this journey into a mystery thriller ... by solving an engaging murder mystery, the reader learns a lot about Chinese medicine. He provides a lot of data and experiences for dealing with Western medicine. It's a great read, and by the end of this ordeal I think the people of Le Roy are going to want to do what Steve Benson did...

[AuthorBookshelf]

Then again, it could all just be a hoax. However, to say it's group psychosomatic manifestations just sounds like crazy talk...

[jessiewellman]

where is DR. House when you need him...... Yes we need a doctor that really knows his/her stuff. that will get involved. There is deffinatlly something wrong here. We have all this technoligy today and it pritty bad when the doctors cant even diagnosis the common cold.

[Arrianna11]

They were intentionally poisoned.
I was a stay at home mom, and when my children were grown and I got divorced, I had no career to turn to. I had to work with poorer type of people who drink and party. These types, I later found out after being poisoned many times, like to get revenge for every perceived slight. They poison people's drinks and food. I've been poisoned at work, at a second workplace, and at a drive-thru where the gal switched the order even tho I didn't change it, and I've heard of poisonings at two nearby restaurants. I know about natural healing, and was able to heal from these incidents. And I know the two girls in Corinth ate at the same restaurant. These girls need to figure out where they all ate at, not necessarily at the same time but likely the same place. A worker there put something in their food. If you can find out what the element was, then go to a natural healer to find the antidote.
I never ever put down any drink or water or anything and come back to it, anywhere. Poisoning is too common. Why do you think products have an extra tamper-proof seal?

[Natural_girl99]

One comment said, "The bottom line here is that there is simply no organic phenomenon---environmental exposures, toxidromes, infections agent(s), that could account for the reported findings in these girls."

Have you actually viewed the reports from the highschool? I have...only summaries or indoor air, primarily mold, and no listing of actual contaminents tested, although they state VOC;s (that could be a few of a thousands). There were no soils or water testing...and there was note of natural gas smell.

What the did not test for, for one, is trichloroethene, that can cause these symptoms, extremely toxic chemical that lingers for decades. I know for a fact it wasn't tested for because it takes specailzed testing, not just your franchise testing lab, and levels can vary depending on season. And it is a major contaminent in Le Roy, major enough the the Agency for Toxic Disease Registry to have been called in to do a report. Can cause vaopor instrusion into buildings, as well as affect ground water and drinking water sources...as it has. Proper remidiation was never done...even when remadiation is done, it's very difficult, almost impossible to remove this contaminent.

If the ATSDR has investigated, it's a very serious issue, and there is reason to test for this chemical.

I also looked up on Planet Hazard for Le Roy...TCE, TCA, PCA causes chromosomal aberrations in human lymphocytes - mutagenic. Extra chromosome pair 21, as in Down Syndrome. Prevalent in ground water, drinking water and vapor intrusion.

I also looked up the purchase histroy for this school site 8.8 acres, was purchased at a very low price according to the tax records..$180K or so, I believe??? Prime property, like most schools. What's wrong with it.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/pha.asp?docid=226&pg=1#background

A write up in this link on TCE testimony to the state of NY:

http://www.mwsg37.com/2009/08/tce-testimony-to-ny-state-assembly-may.html

You can't tell me the health departent doesn't have a clue.

[Natural_girl99]

To "At the Risk of Offending People"....I wonder if you are one of the doctors who received/receiving huge kickbacks and payouts from Pharma companies like the doctors prescribed my mother invasive drugs. My mother was told that her neurological/cognative problem was all in her head for years (tests all negative) that the reason she was "so sleepy" was psychosomatic. Following her death far too early for her years (she suffered horribly) my father and I hired an independant top forensic pathologist to conduct an autopsy. She had evidence of a prior heart attack, perhaps several, that went undiagnosed with practically every hospital in Seattle. Severe scarring on the heart, and 90% blockage of the heart (known as the widow maker). Heart disease does not only happen to men. Heart blockage/infection can cause ticks and distorting of the body.

The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy, told me right off the bat, "it could be her heart". Heart, I though??? He was right.

These girls have a real issue...not just in their heads. It could be heart/pulmanary related, as in infection.

[jumbodee]

At the risk of offending people, I have to offer the comment that this is the kind of situation that medicine handles very poorly, and some of the problem is, frankly, the PC-environment that pervades all society (including, unfortunately, medicine). I do not know any details beyond what has been reported in the media, but I suspect Dr. Mechtler's diagnosis is entirely correct, and I am frankly a little surprised he has spoken as openly as he has, given the provocative nature of the case. I am a practicing physician who is double-boarded in both Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine, and I have treated (conservatively) at least 80,000 patients this far through my career. The public is generally averse, and often even offended, by any suggestion their physical complaint(s) may have a psychogenic cause, and as a result doctors will often couch their (real) impressions by either providing a patient with bogus (but generally harmless) "diagnoses," or simply tiptoe around things by engaging in medical jargon and doublespeak, solely for the sake of expediency. The bottom line here is that there is simply no organic phenomenon---environmental exposures, toxidromes, infections agent(s), that could account for the reported findings in these girls. The girls are affected and acting out these behaviors. To what degree any of them are consciously aware of their behavior is debatable; the most sympathetic (and politically correct) view would be that they are all completely unaware of their actions, and are subconsciously acting out. (That is the position of the doctors cited above.) The more skeptical view would be that at least a couple of them know exactly what they are doing, got swept up into the strange celebrity that comes along with the possibility of being diagnosed with a mysterious illness, and now can not easily admit they were simply feigning their symptoms.

[erasmus111]

" The more skeptical view would be that at least a couple of them know exactly what they are doing, got swept up into the strange celebrity that comes along with the possibility of being diagnosed with a mysterious illness, and now can not easily admit they were simply feigning their symptoms."


I'm afraid I will have to agree with that. For 12 girls to be like this at the same time, I just can't believe it. Stress does different things to different people and I can't see that many reacting the same.

The mothers said that there were no tests done on the girls. So how do they know it wasn't from some drug they took? Or whatever?

[jumbodee]

erasmus111:
I am sure, in a high-profile public health case like this, every conceivable test, including CT's, EEG's, tox screens, metabolic profiles, cultures, etc. were obtained on a sample of the group, and [those studies] were all completely normal. Any environmental exposure or ingestion significant enough to cause the kind of dramatic symptoms demonstrated by these girls would be associated with very obvious findings on laboratory and/or radiologic analysis. Assuming even three or four of these girls were still having symptoms despite thoroughly negative work-ups, it would not be unreasonable to defer performing all of the same tests on all of the girls. Having said that, I would be surprised if even one of the girls did not undergo at least some baseline testing. It is just that they did not all have every possible test.

[scott121111]

THis is so obviously Gardasil vaccine reactions. Girls are around the same age and vaccines are usually given before school starts. No one wants to mention it, because MERCK is so powerful, but someone should look into it.

[AuthorBookshelf]

This was my first thought too. However, wouldn't there be reactions all across Texas? After all, it is mandatory that girls receive the vaccine there. I agree it should be looked into, but I believe it's really the train accident coming home to roost

[kee-kee65]

Finally, someone said what I was thinking. It's a question that will probably never get answered.