Nicaraguans hit by mass hysteria?

Several Nicaraguan indigenous communities have been hit by mass hysteria according to an article in New Scientist magazine. The brief piece said that 43 people in the northern part of the country have been afflicted by mass hysteria.

Oddly enough, cases of hysteria have occurred several times in Nicaragua over the past decade. Over thirty schoolchildren felt symptoms of nausea and hallucinations of being chased in one 2007 incident. In 2004, worries about being taken over by boogie man led some kids of another town to carry copies of the Bible wherever they went.

In a 2006 issue of Canada’s The Walrus Magazine, Nicola Ross wrote about the bouts of mass hysteria in Nicaragua:

The Miskitus, a group indigenous to the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and Honduras, don’t have a word for mental illness. Instead, ailing people are thought to be out of balance with the spirits. Grisi siknis, the Miskitus’ best attempt at a phonetic spelling of “crazy sickness,” causes those afflicted—mostly young Miskitu women—to alternate between a trancelike state of semi-consciousness and periods of frenzied behavior. During the latter, victims often rip off their clothes, flee into the forest or the murky, fast-flowing river, and appear to develop superhuman strength. In such a crazed state, these women are difficult to stop. With their eyes closed, and armed with machetes or sticks, they think nothing of attacking whoever or whatever stands between them and the mysterious force that beckons.

Ross noted that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV of the American Psychiatric Association includes a glossary of twenty-five culture-bound syndromes including bulimia and anorexia.

Another recent case of mass hysteria in the Americas happened in 2007. Hundreds of locals in southern Peruvian claimed that they were sick due to a minor meteorite strike.

Image- New Scientist ("A previous outbreak of mass hysteria, in 2003, affected at least 60 people in Raití, northern Nicaragua.")
Online Sources- The Walrus Magazine, MSNBC, BBC News, New Scientist, Radio La Primerisima, El Diario Nuevo