流行性癔症又称“群体歇斯底里”。其定义是“在一个群聚人群组中发生的具有暗示性器质性病患的躯体症状,但实为社会心理原因所致的疾病,发病的每个成员表现一个或多个症状”(small,1982)。流行性癔症不同于人群中散发性癔症,常常呈爆发流行型式,往往在极短时间内波及数十甚至数百人,而象中世纪欧洲流行的狂舞病竟波及数以千计的居民。Sirois(1974)曾复习了自中世纪以来(至1973)西方医学文献报告的100起本病爆发,表现可谓 Hysteric disease, also known as “hysteria group.” It is defined as “somatic symptoms of suggestive organic disease that occur in a cluster group, but are actually social-psychological causes of illness and each member of the onset presents with one or more symptoms” (small , 1982). Epidemic hysteria, unlike sporadic hysteria in the population, is often prevalent in outbreaks and often affects dozens or even hundreds of people in very short periods of time, while the Mad Hodgkin epidemic, like medieval Europe, reaches thousands of inhabitants. Sirois (1974) reviewed 100 outbreaks of the disease reported in western medical literature since the Middle Ages (1973)