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Epidemic Hysteria in a Zambian School: “The Mysterious Madness of Mwinilunga”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Manohar Dhadphale  and
S. P. Shaikh
Manohar Dhadphale
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, PO Box 30588, Nairobi, Kenya
S. P. Shaikh
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Ndola, Zambia
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Summary

The authors were sent to Mwinilunga from Ndola to investigate what was reported to the local press as ‘mysterious madness'. The condition was actually an outbreak of epidemic hysteria which was triggerred off by a group of girls who were having educational and emotional problems prior to the epidemic.

A change in the administrative policy of rigidly segregating the sexes apparently prepared an emotionally charged background for the rapid spread of the illness. The salient features and management of the epidemic are discussed.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 142 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 85 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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