Predictors of Dissociative Experiences Among Adolescents in Nepal: A Path Analysis

Advantage of neuroeducation in managing mass psychogenic illness among rural school children in Nepal

Introduction

Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also known as mass hysteria (MH), is a mental health disorder that frequently occurs in Nepal. It primarily affects female students in government high schools and occurs during the course of the school day over a few days without corresponding organic causes.

Purpose of the study

This study set out to evaluate and give neuroeducation with the goal of preventing and/or managing MPI after documenting the existing state of knowledge regarding MPI.

Materials and methods

A total of 234 female students in grades 6 through 10 who attended MH-affected schools (SMH, n = 119) and schools without a mass hysteria history (SNOMH, n = 114) participated in this mass hysteria awareness study. Participants received written pre- and posttests formatted as questionnaires before and after receiving neuroeducation by watching a drama, viewing a human brain-spinal cord model demonstration, and attending an instructive lecture on the human neurological system, stress, and mass hysteria.

Results

Our neuroeducation awareness study on mass hysteria was found to be effective among all of the participants from both SMH and SNOMH. The results indicated that the aforementioned neuroeducation tools are more effective in improving knowledge about mental stress differently in different grades of SMH and SNOMH students. The basic understanding of the human neurological system was not improved by the neuroeducation tool, according to our findings.

Conclusion

Our study suggests that using day-structured neuroeducational tools might be an efficient way to treat mass psychogenic illness in Nepal.

Characteristics of Adolescents Affected by Mass Psychogenic Illness Outbreaks in Schools in Nepal: A Case-Control Study

This paper presents the first systematic case-control study of correlates of mass psychogenic illness (MPI) in an adolescent school population. MPI is generally construed as a dissociative phenomenon spread by social contagion to individuals who are prone to dissociation. We sought to test if the correlates of dissociative experiences most commonly proposed in the literature could predict caseness among students affected by episodes of mass psychogenic illness occurring in schools in Nepal. We assessed 194 cases and 190 controls (N = 384) of ages 11-18 years from 12 public schools. Cases and controls were comparable on all demographic variables, except for family configuration, with nuclear families more common among those affected. In bivariate comparisons, caseness was associated with childhood physical neglect and abuse, as well as living in nuclear families, peritraumatic dissociation, dissociative tendencies, and depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Hypnotizability emerged as the strongest correlate of psychogenic illness among the cognitive and personality trait variables. However, in multivariable logistic regression, the correlates of dissociation did not predict caseness, suggesting that they do not adequately account for the phenomenon of mass psychogenic illness. An ad-hoc Classification and Regression Trees analysis showed that if an adolescent was highly hypnotizable and reported high rates of peritraumatic dissociative experiences, then there was a 73% probability of being a case in a mass psychogenic illness episode. Future studies involving other psychological, social and cultural factors, as well as school- and family-related factors are needed to understand the correlates of mass psychogenic illness and guide prevention and intervention.