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UK TV: "The Town that caught Tourette's", Le Roy.

Kate_UK

Senior Member
Messages
258
Thursday 25 October 9PM Channel 4

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-town-that-caught-tourettes/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

In October 2011 in the tiny town of Le Roy, New York, a handful of teenage girls from the same high school suddenly developed symptoms that looked like Tourette's syndrome: facial twitching, violent limb gestures and uncontrollable verbal outbursts.
Some doctors believed they were victims of conversion disorder, where real physical symptoms - in this case tics - are triggered not by a physical cause, but by psychological trauma. But within a few months 18 students were sick and the diagnosis became 'mass hysteria'.
As a cry for help, the girls went on national TV and their story caused a global media frenzy.
This remarkable documentary meets the people at the heart of this outbreak, including the girls who have recovered, as well as those who are still suffering.
 

Shell

Senior Member
Messages
477
Location
England
I see Erin Brockovich is on the case. She's good.
I would love to know where there is any genuine scientific/medical evidence that conversaion disorders/hysteria or mass hysteria actually exists.
It seems to be a strange default setting for officials to scream "Hysteria" in an hysterical way whenever something happens that might just point to it being something bad.

I see a lot of comments about PANDA which I hadn't heard of before. But strep is a truly nasty bug and it's well known that bacterial infection can cause neuro symtoms - ask anyone who's spent more than five minutes working with elderly folk.
Daily Mail article here with a box which laughably tries to explain mass hysteria. I always find it funny that pseudo medicine can so easily dx people from the past without ever seeing them and yet can't dx or treat a patient sitting right there in front of them.
 

Shell

Senior Member
Messages
477
Location
England
I agree 100% taniaaust1 There does seem to be an ingrained mysogyny in medicine, and sadly too many female medics are willing to go along with it.

BTW for UK viewers, episode 2 is on tomorrow night at 9 pm on Channel 4 (Thurs)
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
I agree 100% taniaaust1 There does seem to be an ingrained mysogyny in medicine, and sadly too many female medics are willing to go along with it.

BTW for UK viewers, episode 2 is on tomorrow night at 9 pm on Channel 4 (Thurs)


Shell did you watch Episode 1 then? was it good? (my understanding is that there is only one episode, and that it is on tomorrow ...?)
 

Shell

Senior Member
Messages
477
Location
England
Whoops! My addled fog head - it is just one doc and it's tomorrow. No wonder I couldn't find ep 1 to watch first. ahem...:redface:
 

beaker

ME/cfs 1986
Messages
773
Location
USA
Sadly the local paper claims via statements from the school and the heath department, that all the girls are better and back in school. They( the paper, the authorities) stick with the mass hysteria thing
Not true. One of the girls is being treated for lymes, and has a youtube video journel. The paper conveniently ignores this.
It is my understanding, from the video journal one of the girls has and from the local grapevine, that not only are they not well, but that more people ( some adults as well as kids) are getting sick. And some folks are keeping stuff to themselves b/c of the treatment they have gotten. Here is her YouTube channel if you wish to see her and hear what she and her family are up to regarding the journey of this travesty.
rodeocowgirl131's channel - YouTube

Brocovich (sp) has only sent underlings here, even though she has promised many times to show up and speak. Last time one came, they said ( at least according to their statement to the paper) in a roundabout way that their work was done here. They could not connect the superfund site to the girls illness. In otherwords, they couldn't get a case together and sadly the money dictates their involvement. But then, that was the local paper. One can hope otherwise.

ETA-- I hope I can watch the documentary you posted. Haven't tried yet. time to crash.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
To my knowledge there is zero proof that mass hysteria exists. Mass panic is something else. There is also no proof that hysteria itself exists. This is a default diagnosis - they don't know what it is, ergo it must be hysteria. Its a fancy way of saying they are clueless, so they dive right into mumbo jumbo. There is no doubt that something is happening with patients diagnosed with hysteria. If they were to be honest and say "we don't know" most of these problems would be seen, treated and researched differently.

ME was claimed to be mass hysteria - the Royal Free Hospital outbreak was diagnosed as such in 1970 by looking at old medical records iirc. Hysteria is right up there with most of Freudian psychiatry ... pure babble. I have not done any deep reading on conversion disorder, but I suspect its the same. The hypotheses these are based on are not scientifically testable, have not been scientifically tested, and are often called non-science. Non-science is a form of pseudoscience. Some pseudoscience has been called quackery. I leave it up to you to decide if some of this is quackery, thats an open question I am investigating and have yet to decide on the evidence. Ask me in ten years.

Bye, Alex
 

Shell

Senior Member
Messages
477
Location
England
Well I watched the doc last night. They focused on Lori and a couple of other girls and had a side-issue case of a woman in her 30s from the same town.
A couple of things stood out. First the description of what was happening as "Tourettes like". My husband (who still works in psychi. He's a nurse therapist in Child and Adolesc Mental Health) pointed out that there was still no knowledge about what Tourettes really is and what causes it. So it's a descriptive dx rather than one with a definate marker.

The nex thing was the dx of Conversion Disorder. The dx was made by the consultant neuro and his side kick. Not by a psychiatrist. No one mentioned offering psychiatric input for the girls. If, for the sake of argument, conversion disorders actually exist, then wouldn't the girls need proper psychi follow up and care?
When the families, understandably, resisted the dx, as there was zero evidence the doc makers went in search of back up for the dx. They didn't approach a psychiatrist or a psychologist or anyone with vast experience in PTSD which I suppose would be the nearest "real" dx to CD - nope - they went to a New York Times Journo!

They didn't mention the fact that one girl is dx with Lyme and being treated.
When girls on antibios started to get better the side kick neuro called it "placebo". They said that some of other other girls were also getting better.
But none of them were interviewed.

The woman who was the town "official" was very interesting. I don't think she realised what she was saying. She said they brought in people to check the school building to stop all the panic in the town. Not to search for a possible cause - just to shut everyone up.

I hope this will be available on 4 on Demand.
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
When the families, understandably, resisted the dx, as there was zero evidence the doc makers went in search of back up for the dx. They didn't approach a psychiatrist or a psychologist or anyone with vast experience in PTSD which I suppose would be the nearest "real" dx to CD - nope - they went to a New York Times Journo!

They didn't mention the fact that one girl is dx with Lyme and being treated.
When girls on antibios started to get better the side kick neuro called it "placebo". They said that some of other other girls were also getting better.
But none of them were interviewed.

So true Shell, they 'proved' that the positive effects of antibiotics was due to placebo by saying that those girls who were treated for "conversion disorder" also got better. But as you say they didn't show or interview those other girls, let alone mentioned even what that 'treatment for conversion disorder' they supposedly received actually WAS !!! Also, even if those other girls really did improve, how do we know that that CV "treatment" wasn't actually working via a placebo effect :eek:

'Interesting' to observe how those 'experts' who diagnosed girls with CV were getting very very annoyed with people who would not accept their explanations, and very disapproving of people sharing/posting information and videos on the internet. It was obvious that these egoistic psychos crave total control and authority. (I can see why their 'approches' and 'theories' would be so appealing to certain psychos with neomarxist backgrounds, but that is another long story...)

As one mum said 'I wish they would at least ADMIT they didn't have any real answers'.

The programme stopped short on many many levels.

And don't get me started on that idiot journalist - she was downright disgusting. Creepy crawly type, I felt like needing a good long shower after watching her.
 

Nielk

Senior Member
Messages
6,970
It's interesting that you seem to have gotten more coverage about this in England than here in the U.S.

I live here in New York and first heard about this reading this thread. I did some searching on the internet and can't really find anything more recent then March 2012.

Did they say in the program how this girls are doing today?
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Did they say in the program how this girls are doing today?

Most of those from the original outbreak are said to be doing better (although they only showed those who have had 'alternative' diagnosis and abx treatment, and they seemed well. Apparently the other half who were treated for CV are also doing well, but they were not shown and no details were given).

One girl with severe symptoms was from another town, not same as all the others, and she was still doing badly as of Sept this year. She had been receiving IV abx.

There were 2 more NEW cases in LeRoy in Sept this year. This is where they finished filming it seems...
 

Nielk

Senior Member
Messages
6,970
Did they say anything about the possibility that it might be due to vaccination?
 

Shell

Senior Member
Messages
477
Location
England
'Interesting' to observe how those 'experts' who diagnosed girls with CV were getting very very annoyed with people who would not accept their explanations, and very disapproving of people sharing/posting information and videos on the internet. It was obvious that these egoistic psychos crave total control and authority. (I can see why their 'approches' and 'theories' would be so appealing to certain psychos with neomarxist backgrounds, but that is another long story...)

As one mum said 'I wish they would at least ADMIT they didn't have any real answers'.

The programme stopped short on many many levels.

And don't get me started on that idiot journalist - she was downright disgusting. Creepy crawly type, I felt like needing a good long shower after watching her.[/quote]

Yeah, I noticed how annoyed the neuro docs were that one of the girls (I think it was just Lori) went online in search of help. How dare she! What if it showed a doctor up!
One other thing about the "experts" that bugged me; and maybe it was just an editorial thing - but everyone talked about bloods and it was clear that when Lori was hospitalised she had an ecg but no one mentioned eegs, which surely that had nor any high res MRIs or fMRI or SPECT scans.

There appeared to be a lot of official butt covering going on. This does not inspire confidence or trust - but they don't seem to get that.

On the PANDAs dx there were two definate bio finds - strep and something else. Can't remember.
The end of the doc had some written stuff that said the Brockovich team hadn't finished it's investigation.

Some of the parents and the woman in her 30s accepted the CVD dx. The woman had been systematically abused. But even she didn't seem to have been offered targeted help. How did they know she didn't have PTSD and something else? Even if CVD is a real illness then something would trigger it - no one said what.

I agree 100% that NYT journo woman was slimey.
My heart went out to the family where the mum had brain surgery. That was gutter low, the way she did that.

It;s still not available on 4onD but if any of you across the pond have 4seven you might catch it. Not sure about other countries.
 

allyb

Senior Member
Messages
127
Location
yorkshire/lancashire border, England
Strange thing is.........since I've had this illness, I sufferer terrible Tourette's like profanities in response to such lunacy.:eek:

Note for Medics or babblers post humour-ectomy
I understand that my outbursts though reactive are controllable and serve as an instant release of frustration. This affliction has replaced an adult factual, evidence based response which would have been my retort when well!

I would love to know where there is any genuine scientific/medical evidence that conversaion disorders/hysteria or mass hysteria actually exists.It seems to be a strange default setting for officials to scream "Hysteria" in an hysterical way whenever something happens that might just point to it being something bad.


Yes Shell....spot on!

Labels like “Hysteria” and “Conversion disorder”
quiet similar to their predecessors like: “she’s possessed by the devil” “it’s the work of evil spirits”

Can be translated into ‘I can’t/don’t want to figure this out’

This kind of projection casts doubt and shame on to the recipient and takes the spotlight off the perpetrator.

If you look at research surrounding these labels it is farcical.:rolleyes:

My friends on PR know that in my previous well life I became a bit of a nerd :nerd: in the history of Fraud et al, psychoanalysis and I am very well versed in the myths surrounding mental illness.Whilst I have lectured on these subjects in the past, now on a good day I manage a post whilst on bad day I’m not even an intellectual match for an amoeba.:redface:


How refreshing then to find this about LeRoy ......................................
Tics and Toxins: The Crazy History of Conversion Disorder


By Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill

What’s really sickening, though, is the use of this antiquated and unproven diagnosis in place of rigorous investigation and appropriate treatment.
Even though much of Freudian theory is now regarded as quaint, wrong-headed or downright destructive – blaming parents for serious biological illnesses like schizophrenia, for instance – hysteria and its successors have gotten the medical version of a hundred-year hall pass, reflecting the power of the psychiatric establishment to create its own version of reality.
To explain why – why Freud was wrong about hysteria and why today’s medical industry is making the same mistake and doing the same disservice to patients -- we need to take a trip back to a time and place not entirely unlike our own.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/04/tics-and-toxins-the-crazy-history-of-conversion-disorder.html
It is really worth reading the full article
It explains it beautifully........... without me moving a brain cell, thanks guys.

allyb;)
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Updated: September 11, 2012

print.png
The New York State Department of Health has uncovered two new cases of tic-like symptoms in LeRoy.

A department spokesman says both of the individuals are seeing independent physicians. Both are students in LeRoy, but we don't know their gender or if they are high school students. The department learned of these two cases within the last few days. It says environmental factors and infection are not to blame for the symptoms.

http://rochesterhomepage.net/fulltext?nxd_id=341282

Amazing how it took them only FEW DAYS to rule out environmental factors and infections!!! FEW DAYS to run all the tests etc etc.

Wow these department people are amazing, they certainly posses superpowers.
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
mass psychogenic illness

do these stupid bastards even realize how paradoxical and imposisble that is?
you either have

telepathy, mind control, yes folks, SUPER POWERS!!
If My mind can really control my body I will make my dong 14 INCHES LONG AND STRONGER THAN STEEL!!
GO GO GADGET MEGA-WHOPPA-CHOPPER!
*he says like The Mask and takes off into the air using his rotating-turbo-johnson!* :alien:

or

an unidentified disease or environmental factor.

now, which is more likely, and based on Science?
sigh, it's like we still have snake oil salesmen, witchhunters and kooks running things.