By David Tuller, DrPH
On Monday afternoon, a bunch of people in Terminal 4 at Heathrow, London’s biggest airport, reported feeling ill. The reports led to concerns about a possible toxic exposure, which triggered an evacuation and major flight delays. An initial search for dangerous substances found nothing.
On Tuesday, The Guardian ran an article under the following headline:
“‘Mass psychogenic illness’ plausible cause of toxic substance alert at Heathrow, says scientist”
And here’s the headline on the Guardian article that appeared hours later:
“Man arrested on suspicion of bringing teargas to Heathrow airport”
Ok, then. Let’s parse this.
“Mass psychogenic illness,” or sometimes “mass sociogenic illness,” is the term that has mostly replaced what was formerly called “mass hysteria.” (The diagnosis and concept of “hysteria” has fallen into disfavor as stigmatizing and misogynistic.) This incident is a classic example of how quickly those with authority will turn to psychiatric or psycho-sociological assumptions to explain unusual medical phenomena–assumptions that are often asserted as definitive rather than speculative.
Long COVID has certainly been framed in such terms, perhaps most infamously and offensively by a resident in psychiatry at Canada’s McMaster University in Canada in a 2021 opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. (I wrote about it here and here.)
Here’s the opening of the first Guardian article:
“Police were called to Heathrow late on Monday afternoon when 21 people fell ill in Terminal 4. Initial reports suggested a hazardous material could be involved and part of the airport was evacuated. But when the emergency services conducted a thorough search, no trace of any adverse substance was found.
“A source within the Metropolitan police subsequently suggested the event could be something quite different – a case of mass hysteria. And some experts agree.
“‘What happened at Heathrow is almost certainly an episode of mass psychogenic illness that is anxiety-based,’ said Dr Robert Bartholomew, a University of Auckland sociologist who is an expert on the subject.”
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Professor Sir Simon Wessely weighs in
Of course, the UK’s most renowned psychiatrist, Professor Sir Simon Wessely, was also asked to weigh in. In fact, he and Dr Bartholomew co-wrote a 2018 article on this issue for the British Journal of General Psychiatry. The article was called “The protean nature of mass sociogenic illness: From possessed nuns to chemical and biological terrorism fears.” Even so, Sir Simon was more cautious in his comments to The Guardian than his colleague, although he fully endorsed the possibility.
From the Guardian article:
“Prof Sir Simon Wessely of King’s College London…said it was ‘a bit early’ to come to judgments about the Heathrow event and it was unclear whether there was an unusual odour or what investigations were done to eliminate other causes. But he added: ‘If all these come to nothing, then yes, this may be an episode of what we now call mass sociogenic illness.’
“Bartholomew stressed the illness was not a mental disorder and victims were not psychologically disturbed.
“’It is best described as a collective stress reaction that is based on a belief. We all have beliefs, therefore we are all potential victims,’ he said. ‘It is not ‘all in their heads’ in the sense that they are experiencing real symptoms.’
“Wessely added: ‘Study after study has never found anything different about those who are affected from those who aren’t. All of us can experience anxiety in certain symptoms, and all of us can mistake these physiological symptoms, which can be easily explained by basic physiology for evidence of something else – such as a chemical, toxin etc. And we know these can spread very quickly in crowded environments, usually by rumour and also line of sight.’
“Wessely said there was nothing unusual about the events at terminal 4 on Monday: ‘It happens all over the world every day, particularly in crowded spaces like schools, concerts, crowds, factory floors etc. The only reason this made the news was because of the fact it was at Heathrow and led to major flight disruptions.’
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After the police investigated further, The Guardian updated its coverage. Here’s an excerpt from the later Guardian article:
“Police have arrested a man on suspicion of bringing teargas into Heathrow airport, which caused Terminal 4’s check-in area to briefly shut down.
“The check-in area at the UK’s main international airport was evacuated for around three hours on Monday evening as emergency services probed a ‘potential hazardous materials incident’.
“A Metropolitan police spokesperson said a 57-year-old man had been arrested after urgent inquiries on suspicion of possession of a firearm (CS spray) and ‘causing a public nuisance’.
“After searching the area, Met officers located a canister of ‘what is believed to be CS spray’, which was ‘thought to have caused a reaction to those within the airport,’ the police said…
“A source in the Met Police initially suspected that the incident could have been a case of ‘mass hysteria’ before the canister was located, after officers scoured the area and were unable to find the source of the hazardous substance passengers had reported.”
Oops! Never mind!