Doctor: Students victims of mass hysteria

NEW YORK, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Twelve teenage girls at a New York school who fell ill with Tourette's-like symptoms of tics and verbal outbursts experienced mass hysteria, a doctor says.

Dr. Laszlo Mechtler, a neurologist in Amherst, N.Y., says his diagnosis of the girls attending LeRoy Junior-Senior High School in upstate New York is "conversion disorder," or mass hysteria.

"It's happened before, all around the world, in different parts of the world. It's a rare phenomenon. Physicians are intrigued by it," Mechtler told NBC'S "Today" show Wednesday. "The bottom line is these teenagers will get better."

Psychologist Gail Saltz, appearing on "Today," said just because the girls' symptoms may be psychological in origin doesn't make them any less real or serious.

"That's not faking it. They're real symptoms," the doctor said. "They need a psychiatric or psychological treatment. Treatment does work."

Conversion disorder symptoms usually occur after a stress event, and can include blindness, inability to speak, numbness or other neurologic problems, medical experts said.

High school cheerleader and art student Thera Sanchez says her tics, stammer and verbal outbursts started out of the blue after a nap last October.

"I was fine. I was perfectly fine. There was nothing going on, and then I just woke up, and that's when the stuttering started," Sanchez said.

The New York State Health Department has been investigating and says the school building is not to blame, ruling out carbon monoxide, illegal drugs and other factors as potential causes.