Epidemic Hysteria: A Field Study

Abstract

From approximately Feb. 14 through early August, 1962, 22 subjects, all females except one, experienced hysterical attacks, or what the victims described as "blackout spells." The outbreak took place in a Negro school of a southwestern Louisiana town. The study includes a definition of the epidemiological, psychological, and psychiatric characteristics of the affected students when compared with a control group. There were some differences between the patient and control groups, but these were not significant in many respects. The mean I.Q. for each group was in the Borderline Defective Range, though the control group showed more persons with average intelligence than the affected group. The social factors related to the outbreak were not especially suggestive except that the hysteria group showed a slight tendency to have more broken homes. The EEG studies were not remarkable as to differences between affected and control groups but indicated a very high degree of abnormality in both groups[long dash]53% in the hysteria group and 57% in the control group. The precipitating factors associated with the onset of the outbreak were identified and other important factors studied. The study of the affected subjects, their attacks and the progression of the illness from one student to another, suggests a true outbreak of hysteria of epidemic proportions.