THE phenomenon is sometimes called collective hysteria or mass psychogenic disorder or mass hysteria.
In a 2010 article by Dr. Gary Small in Psychology Today, the psychology professor of University of California Los Angeles, said that when a person is stressed out, the “mind can make the body sick.”
In his article “Mass hysteria can strike anywhere, anytime, he wrote:
“Outbreaks of mystery illness are more common than we think -often a physical culprit is discovered, but psychological stress and anxiety are sometimes the cause. Epidemics of hysteria have been recorded as far back as the Middle-Ages and continue to strike today. Most often, the outbreaks afflict children and teenagers, girls more than boys, and fainting and hyperventilation are the most common symptoms.
Occasionally, the illness persists for days; but usually, once the afflicted crowd disperses, symptoms tend to disappear, probably because they are only contagious when new victims observe others falling ill. Rumors about the cause of these outbreaks tend to spring up throughout the communities.”