12 Girls With 'Tourettes-like' Illness Diagnosis: Mass Hysteria... ?!

Wtf. Are they faking it? I personally am unsure.

"The day after TODAY reported on the baffling case of 12 teenage girls at one school who mysteriously fell ill with Tourette's-like symptoms of tics and verbal outbursts, a doctor who is treating some of the girls has come forward to offer an explanation. Dr. Laszlo Mechtler, a neurologist in Amherst, N.Y., says the diagnosis is "conversion disorder," or mass hysteria.
"It's happened before, all around the world, in different parts of the world. It's a rare phenomena. Physicians are intrigued by it," Mechtler told TODAY on Wednesday. "The bottom line is these teenagers will get better."
On the show Tuesday, psychologist and TODAY contributor Dr. Gail Saltz noted that just because the girls' symptoms may be psychological in origin doesn't make them any less real or painful.
"That's not faking it. They're real symptoms," Saltz continued. "They need a psychiatric or psychological treatment. Treatment does work.''
Conversion disorder symptoms usually occur after a stress event, although a patient can be more at risk if also suffering from an illness. Symptoms may last for days or weeks and can include blindness, inability to speak, numbness or other neurologic problems."
http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/18/10181277-teen-girls-m...

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News & Politics

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• leroy
• high
• school
• girls
• sick
• tourettes
• like
• illness
• diagnosis
• gardisil
• mass
• hysteria

[DaCoach68]

Bottom line: DRAMA QUEENS SEEKING ATTENTION.

[Zapppo]

Dr. Laszlo Mechtler is a CRUEL QUACK!

[DBHuntington]

@xXMissKayleeNicoleXx - Well, many of us believe that they do, in fact, have conversion disorder. I have been a Registered Nurse for more-than half of my life, have worked in psychiatry, and have a Masters Degree. How do YOU know that they are physically unwell? May I ask you, since you are "best friends with two of the girls", and all: How do they put on their make-up and blow dry their hair with all the twitching? You ask, if we think they would "fake this". Yes, for attention. Sad kids

[DBHuntington]

@Reviewcam1961 - Oh, the kid to whom you allude is the red head. She is overweight and rather homely. We call her "Fly Swatter."

[DBHuntington]

@Reviewcam1961 yes, I have been asking this since the start: If they cannot stop flailing- and THEY say it goes on all day and night how do they put on make-up and blow dry their hair every day?

[DBHuntington]

I am just confused about why these parents would rather have their children diagnosed with some potentially life-threatening, toxic based illness than with something that is considered a "mental issue". Could it be fear of stigmatizing the child AND them? Or the fact that you can't SUE for a psychologically based illness?

[jad3948]

@WhiteLightLive troololololol

[jad3948]

it turns out they were all crazy. no surprise, because everyone knows women are psycho

[Reviewcam1961]

I think some are outright faking, and others have genuine conversion disorder. Conversion disorder isn't the same as faking. Their stress just manifests as tics. The tics these kids display are not consistent at all with tourettes syndrome. One of the girls not in this clip flailed her one arm back and forth, yet was able to apply make up with the same arm.

Odd. If this were truly an outbreak of an illness you'd think much more kids would have it.

Conversion, fake, or drugs

[bunniesrock34]

0:53 shes a fake because she does not do anything for the whole video except talk. She doesn't show any of the ticks or spasms