28 ms·

"Psychogenic" seems like an awfully implausible explanation. Two dozen diplomats from two countries, with similar stories, with similar injuries as identified b

"Psychogenic" seems like an awfully implausible explanation. Two dozen diplomats from two countries, with similar stories, with similar injuries as identified by a doctor - and it's psychogenic? If I asked a thousand people on the street "Do you remember when you were debilitated by a strange noise and suffered mental problems for days afterwards?" What percentage would experience the psychogenic trauma? Is that the idea? That the diplomats just had this trauma "suggested" to them and therefore believe in it?

ceejayoz 7y ago
We had a case of this in schools near my town a few years back. It's hardly unheard of, and cases tend to snowball a bit, especially once rumor and news coverage gets involved. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-hysteria-outbreak-reported-in-ny-town-what-does-it-mean/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-hysteria-outbreak-reported... There's some significant skepticism/criticism of the claims of impairment and physical brain trauma: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2697000 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/26970... http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/04/07/bad-science-havana-attack/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/04/07/ba...
smileysteve 7y ago
> Do you remember when you were debilitated by a strange noise? You'd find a few percent of adults who can hear above the 17khz range who are plagued by buildings with bird deterrant signals. And professionals that can hear poorly made transformers used in fluorescent lights and major electronics. Anecdotally, my worst cases were the home Depot bird deterrer in a garden center, that every 5 seconds I would wince and lose my balance and much peripheral perception. And in an accelerator cohort of 40 20-40 year olds, 2 of us had to hunt down the tv with a loud transformer in the open office room while being thought insane by the rest of our cohort.

ceejayoz 7y ago

We had a case of this in schools near my town a few years back. It's hardly unheard of, and cases tend to snowball a bit, especially once rumor and news coverage gets involved. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-hysteria-outbreak-reported-in-ny-town-what-does-it-mean/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-hysteria-outbreak-reported... There's some significant skepticism/criticism of the claims of impairment and physical brain trauma: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2697000 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/26970... http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/04/07/bad-science-havana-attack/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/04/07/ba...

smileysteve 7y ago

> Do you remember when you were debilitated by a strange noise? You'd find a few percent of adults who can hear above the 17khz range who are plagued by buildings with bird deterrant signals. And professionals that can hear poorly made transformers used in fluorescent lights and major electronics. Anecdotally, my worst cases were the home Depot bird deterrer in a garden center, that every 5 seconds I would wince and lose my balance and much peripheral perception. And in an accelerator cohort of 40 20-40 year olds, 2 of us had to hunt down the tv with a loud transformer in the open office room while being thought insane by the rest of our cohort.