Mass hysteria, shared social delusion, or toxic poisoning? 

 

 

 

It sounds like something from a B-grade movie.  An emergency room in Coos Bay, Oregon was recently placed in quarantine after five people—including two police officers, began to hallucinate after coming into contact with a woman who claimed her car was being vandalized—although there is no evidence that it was.   
 

The strange saga began in the early morning hours of Wednesday October 12th after Coos County Police answered a call about vandalism by a 57-year-old caregiver who reported that eight people were trying to remove her car roof. They found nothing, but were called back at around 5:30 am when the woman claimed a similar incident had taken place. Finding nothing to support her claims, they suspected the woman was hallucinating. She was taken to the local Bay Area Hospital where her mental state evaluated. She was found to be mentally fit and released. But before long, the two police officers who had responded to the scene, the 78-year-old woman who was being cared for, and a hospital worker, all appeared to exhibit hallucinations including nausea, lightheadedness, and euphoria. Those affected were hospitalized and a Hazardous Materials response team placed the emergency room in quarantine.

A search of the elderly woman’s home was unremarkable except for several fentanyl patches which contain opioids to control pain. Reports indicate that the responding HazMat team had initially suspected the patches to be the cause, but authorities later ruled out the possibility. According to KVAL TV in Eugene, Sgt. Pat Downing announced that blood samples were unremarkable and the source of the contamination remained a mystery. It may be significant that authorities believed the symptoms were spread by touch and not through the air. The Coos County Sheriff’s Office released this statement: “Initial investigations believed that a medication used in patch form may have been the source. Investigation has found that all those patches and potential medications that may have caused the symptoms have been accounted for.” It also stated that: “The vehicles, equipment and uniforms have been checked with no contaminates identified or located on or about them.”

So what are we dealing with here? Is it possible that those involved thought they may have come into contact with the patches and were acting on suggestion? As unlikely as that sounds, there are precedents in history. On September 23, 1998, three students at a California Middle School were rushed to the hospital after ingesting the powerful hallucinogenic drug LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide). It so happened that eleven other students from the same school who had sampled a white powder from a vial on the same day, believed that they too had ingested LSD, even though it was a harmless substance. Convinced that they had taken LSD, the students exhibited symptoms ranging from violence to hallucinations. They were taken to the hospital where the tests were negative and they were soon released.
 

The Devil is in the detail

In the absence of any specific toxic agents, it is vital to conduct detailed interviews with those involved and establish a step by step timeline of events. While the jury is still out on this mystery, and it is possible that some as of yet unidentified agent is the cause, mass suggestion is a real possibility.
 

As for the likelihood of a shared social delusion (folie à deux or 'madness of two'), while anything is possible, this appears highly unlikely. Such cases are typically incubated in small, close-knit groups, over a long period of time. I’m not seeing that here. If I were to bet $100 on a diagnosis, I would place $45 on mass suggestion, $5 on an as yet unidentified toxic agent, $0 on a socially shared psychotic delusion, and I would pocket the other $50, as we have to wait for more details emerge on the timeline of events. At this point, all we have to go on are police statements and local media reports. We need greater detail to make a more accurate assessment.