{"id":11816,"date":"2021-12-14T08:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T07:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iabnetz.de\/?post_type=publikationen&p=11816"},"modified":"2025-12-17T13:00:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:00:46","slug":"stop-that-it-s-not-tourette-s-but-a-new-type-of-mass-sociogenic-illness","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/publikationen\/weitere-veroeffentlichungen\/stop-that-it-s-not-tourette-s-but-a-new-type-of-mass-sociogenic-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop that! It\u2019s not Tourette\u2019s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness: Mueller-Vahl KR et al."},"content":{"rendered":"

Brain<\/em>, awab316,\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/brain\/awab316<\/a><\/p>\n

– ORIGINAL ARTICLE<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirsten R M\u00fcller-Vahl<\/a><\/i>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Anna Pisarenko<\/a>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Ewgeni Jakubovski<\/a>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Carolin Fremer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Author affiliations:
\nDepartment of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School,
\nGermany
\nCorrespondence to: Prof. Dr. Kirsten R M\u00fcller-Vahl
\nDepartment of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy
\nHannover Medical School
\nCarl-Neuberg-Str. 1
\nD-30625 Hannover, Germany
\nE-mail: mueller-vahl.kirsten@mh-hannover.de
\norcid.org\/0000-0002-7181-7419<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/h2>\n
\n

We report the first outbreak of a new type of mass sociogenic illness (MSI) that in contrast to all previously reported episodes is spread solely via social media. Accordingly, we suggest the more specific term \u201cmass social media-induced illness\u201d (MSMI).<\/p>\n

In Germany, current outbreak of MSMI is initiated by a \u201cvirtual\u201d index case, who is the second most successful YouTube creator in Germany and enjoys enormous popularity among young people. Affected teenagers present with similar or identical functional \u201cTourette-like\u201d behaviours, which can be clearly differentiated from tics in Tourette syndrome.<\/p>\n

Functional \u201cTourette-like\u201d symptoms can be regarded as the \u201cmodern\u201d form of the well-known motor variant of MSI. Moreover, they can be viewed as the 21th<\/sup>\u00a0century expression of a culture-bound stress reaction of our post-modern society emphasizing the uniqueness of individuals and valuing their alleged exceptionality, thus promoting attention-seeking behaviours and aggravating the permanent identity crisis of modern man. We wish to raise awareness of the current global \u201cTourette-like\u201d MSMI outbreak. A large number of young people across different countries are affected, with considerable impact on health care systems and society as a whole, since spread via social media is no longer restricted to specific locations such as local communities or school environments.spread via social media is no longer restricted to specific locations such as schools or towns.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abstract: We report the first outbreak of a new type of mass sociogenic illness (MSI) that in contrast to all previously reported episodes is spread solely via social media. Accordingly, we suggest the more specific term \u201cmass social media-induced illness\u201d (MSMI). …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":30426,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11816","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30484,"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11816\/revisions\/30484"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaunch.iabnetz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}