Mass Psychogenic Illness
The DSM-IV-TR does not have specific diagnosis for mass psychogenic illness but the text describing conversion disorder states that "In 'epidemic hysteria,' shared symptoms develop in a circumscribed group of people following 'exposure' to a common precipitant."
Read more about this topic: Conversion Disorder
Famous quotes containing the words mass and/or illness:
“Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass of quotable stuff he never quotes, but an even vaster realm of which he has never heard.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)
“Most observers of the French Revolution, especially the clever and noble ones, have explained it as a life-threatening and contagious illness. They have remained standing with the symptoms and have interpreted these in manifold and contrary ways. Some have regarded it as a merely local ill. The most ingenious opponents have pressed for castration. They well noticed that this alleged illness is nothing other than the crisis of beginning puberty.”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (17721801)