Whatever happened with the LeRoy tics?
Short answer: The 20 individuals who suffered from the tics originally have recovered, which I am thrilled to hear. However, it was reported in September 2012 that two new cases were identified in LeRoy.
Long answer: Hi Reader. Media wonks seem to have largely forgotten about the drama in LeRoy, New York that occurred earlier this year. However, I am sure that you remember well the tale of the young women (and one young man) who were afflicted with Tourette’s- like tics. Many “experts” rushed to the fore to dispense their agenda-ridden declarations as to the cause of the tics, including the anti-vax brigade. In addition, Dr. Rosario Trifiletti declared confidently that the diagnosis of conversion disorder was “garbage”, and that the real cause was pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS). Erin Brockovich scurried over to implicate various and sundry “environmental toxins”.
So what happened to the LeRoy teens and the attendant circus that went on around them? What caused–and may still be causing– the mysterious tics? Wherefore all of the experts who weighed in? Well, as of now, we know that HPV vaccine was ruled out as a cause. Next, extensive testing of air, soil, and water showed nothing of concern in the LeRoy Junior/Senior high. If you’ve got some time you can read the entire report here. Erin Brockovich was scheduled to show up in LeRoy in August to present the findings of her own investigation, but was a no-show, allegedly due to a staph infection. Her deputy Bob Bowcock took over the duties and revealed…nothing, really. He admitted that:
“There is no link specifically that I can draw to environmental exposure because there are so many environmental exposures that occurred at the high school”…
and then went on to pave the way for his permanent exit from the LeRoy drama, stating:
We’re not washing our hands of what is going on at the school. What we’re doing is empowering the community to take action and rectify the problem that we, from an environmental stand point, have identified.”
That, my reader, is just legendary, epic spin right there. The next time I abandon a cause I’m gonna use the empowerment rationale fershure. But anyway, what about Dr. Rosario Trifiletti, who claimed that he had determined that PANDAS was the cause of the tics? Well, he has pretty much disappeared since he had revealed his scientific findings via the New York Times comments section. Perhaps he is writing up his findings for a legitimate journal as I type this.
The one thing about the LeRoy tics that remains clear is that the majority of the officials involved remain convinced that the phenomenon was caused by conversion disorder. This is backed up by a recent posting at the LeRoy School District website, which reads in part:
“With the beginning of the new school year, we are asking all media outlets and other individuals, to please respect that the Le Roy School District will no longer be commenting on student health issues within our schools. We have been warned by medical experts that the continued media attention on the Le Roy School District and greater community runs the risk of negatively impacting the students previously diagnosed with conversion disorder that have recovered and can also serve as a catalyst for new symptoms to develop.”
And therefore, reader, this will be my final post on the subject as well. I send my best wishes for the continued recovery of the teens who were and are affected by the tics.
I thought about you this morning, on my way to work. This whole thing was covered by “Big Picture Science”, the podcast from the SETI institute. Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the update.
Thanks Reuben…I’ll have to check that out! I was personally curious as to what the outcome was, so I figured I would share with my reader.
I wrote about the LeRoy issue earlier this year, partially because I lived in Rochester, NY for many years, and partially because I am a skeptical SOB. I discounted PANDAS because I have a major problem with someone diagnosing over the internet, which is what I thought Trifiletti had done. And PANDAS has enough pseudoscience attached to it (I know, it’s not homeopathy, but I remember reading some articles about it, and there was some junk science circling around it). I wrote about a psychiatrist at SUNY-Buffalo who called it conversion disorder earlier this year, and everyone complained about it. I thought he had it spot on. Occam’s razor wins out again.
Great article. And I so enjoy your snark level, especially when I see your vaccine articles.
I might steal (oops, I mean borrow, with appropriate citation) your post here to close out this story on my blog.
Wow! The Raptor is in da house! Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words. I enjoy you blog very much as well…I would be honored to have you “steal” my post.
Stolen. Check your ping backs. While I was doing some research, I ran across your article debunking the Gardasil caused it crap from the anti-vaxxer lunatics. Have those people any shame? Oh wait, don’t answer that.
Your post is excellent! And yeah, they have no shame. And apparently neither do the PANDAS people. Such a feeding frenzy for everyone to promote their favorite cause.
“And therefore, reader, this will be my final post on the subject as well.”
You mean to say that you are now empowering your reader.
You make me chuckle, COVRAC. Very clever.
Yup. One for the books, and to remember next time pseudoscience crusaders come riding in on white horses leaving nothing but droppings behind
Thank you Skewed, for yet another amazingly well-written article.
I haven’t had a chance to catch up on reading your articles thanks to a busy work schedule, but it’s always nice to find new stuff to read when I do get the time.
Thanks again! Glad you could pop by.
I realy dont understand why the “medical experts” are warning about spreading the news. Those kids had this disorder before any media coverage was on. I think they just want to cover something. This is not right. Dont belive to those incense. Stress ? come on..the world is full with stress so we all should be having tics.
What do you think they are covering up, flipi? Conversion disorder can certainly be influenced by media coverage. In fact, I saw it happen with my own two eyes when one of the young women appeared on a television show.
where was the media coverage when all start? As I know there was NO media.
There was a lot of discussion of social media as a transmission vector. You must consider social media in addition to traditional formats. After the television/print media attention began in earnest, the number of cases rose and there was very little recovery by those affected. Then there was media silence, followed by recovery. Of course, during the time of media silence, the teenagers were being treated by physicians as well.
I have to ask again, and would appreciate an answer this time. What do you think is being covered up, and by whom?
I don’t have answer to that I am sorry. But also I don’t believe in that phenomenon called media stress. If there is media effect I will ask again where in the world has happened similar that media is affecting. I don’t know but for me stress media is just not serious answer.
Ah I just watched the documentary this night on channel 4 in UK. Thats where from I heard of it.
In 21/th century the media is almost in every corner so in that theory we should all have tics.
Ah, I was wondering where all of the traffic to this post was coming from. Lots of searches for “LeRoy Tics” I suppose. Welcome to the page.
Conversion disorder is actually a very well-described medical phenomenon. Teenagers, particularly young women, seem to be especially vulnerable. I’m not sure how this whole thing was portrayed in the documentary that you mention as I’m in the U.S., but it’s not something that is caused by media per se. It’s something that can be exacerbated by the media. Conversion disorder seems like the right call based on everything I’ve read.
You may be surprised to see how common conversion disorder is if you dig a bit more. It’s got a long history, but it was more commonly called “mass hysteria” in the past.
Well it was well portrayed. more or less just exposing the situation.
as for CD as I know the symptoms are :
Blindness
Inability to speak
Numbness
Paralysis
As for documentary none of these symptoms was showed on a TV. Actual does any one showed any of these symptoms?
Flipi, I’m afraid that’s not even close to a comprehensive list of symptoms that can occur with conversion disorder. And I don’t think the diagnosis is based on specific symptoms so much as how they present.
EMF’s: Wifi, 3G, 4G, etc, etc. 21st Century Killer. Technology, you gotta love it!
Dang it Jason, you make me want to perform an exorcism on my iphone.
Everyone seems to have forgotten this story! Glad to stumble upon this rather witty blog on my mission for an update.
Surely the fact that the girls recovered though both the antibiotic treatment and the conversion therapy suggests a placebo effect, and that the cause must therefore be psychological?
Thanks for stopping by, Jade. I agree with your assessment. Amazing what a little common sense can reveal!
“as for CD as I know the symptoms are :
Blindness
Inability to speak
Numbness
Paralysis”
And seizure-like events, and dystonia, and tics, and episodes of loss of consciousness, and probably a large proportion of unexplained belly pain, though the latter is hard to prove since there aren’t definitive diagnostic tests. So your thesis is that because you didn’t know tics could be caused by conversion disorder, then it can’t be the diagnosis? The remedy for not knowing something is learning about it.
And as for the “stress” involved, there was (finally) a decent piece in the New York Times that began to scratch the surface of some of what was going on in the lives of the index cases in this outbreak. But by the time someone in the press started asking the right questions, most of the media interest had peaked and dissipated.
Exactly, Orley. Thanks for your informative post. I wrote a blog entry about the excellence of the NYT piece when it came out. It was a real eye-opener…including the comments section.
can you please find more cases where there are people with same life problems and having so massive incidence of CD?
Because if its only this case then NYT is not proving nothing, thats how it works in medicine.
You can find such cases yourself, flipi. You just need to do some searching on the internet.
Wow, I got a few thousand hits on my LeRoy article suddenly today. It appears the nut job Infowars website published an article about it, and people were googling articles about it.
I’m sure they found this article too.
Same thing…I was wondering what had driven the traffic over here! Thanks for the heads-up.
http://planet.infowars.com/worldnews/15-girls-at-the-same-school-get-tourettes
You can delete this link if you’d rather not have it here. Crazy.
Hi Michael,
An Aussie poster just said that they aired a documentary there about this last night–maybe that is where our traffic is coming from. I have to admit I would have been shocked by infowars generating so many visitors; but then, sometimes I am surprised by the power of misinformation! I will check out the link.
The documentary was shown last night here in Australia. Given the success of the psychological treatments and the antibiotics as a possible placebo, conversion disorder seems logical. However, what about the poor girl, Lori, who has not improved? Whatever the cause I feel very sorry for these poor young girls and their families. What a terrible affliction.
Hi Kerris,
Thanks for stopping by. I am not sure about any Leroy students who have not improved as we have not seen the documentary here in the U.S. But as of my last post, health officials were reporting that the original Leroy teens had fully recovered.
Is there a way to see that documentary here in the US? I’d love to see what was stated.
Kerris, it’s possible that just through random chance, one of the girls actually developed Tourettes irrespective of the conversion disorders.
I don’t know if we can see it. It may be the same BBC documentary that aired late last year in the UK and generated a lot of traffic. I’m sure it will pop up on Youtube eventually!
I saw the documentary on Australian television last night and I agree with the diagnosis of conversion disorder. Hysteria in some adolescents, just like anxiety, can be contagious – if you run around like a headless hen,then I panic too. Some Australian cases have been written up in reputable journals. See for example:
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/hysteria-takes-hold-as-schoolgirls-fear-the-needle-20110326-1caxa.html
Very interesting article, thanks for sharing. Just anecdotally I have witnessed similar behavior. Captain Obvious says that teenage girls move in packs and as a group are very susceptible to peer influences!
If you want to watch the documentary just google abc iview which is the site where the abc television channel has programs for viewing that they have recently aired. It is on abc2 and is there for another 5 days i think.
Great, thanks so much!
Very interesting case, i saw the documentary tonight. (in Norway) But i dont understand. why was not placebo tested before the real antibiotics? And given that conversion dissorder is exacerbated by media coverage, did they rule out the possible placebo effect of the media coverage, due to the stigmatization from the diagnosis. It got to my attention that this one aflicted woman in her thirties who had suffered traumatic events repeatedly. Her illness could absolutely be explained by C.D. But i hope her case did not strenghten the focus on C.D by the physicians on the teenagers. It may as well be conversion disorder. But i still believe there is a known unknown factor to this… That may or may not be found in the next couple of years. I would keep my eyes open for an environmental factor. Be it infectious or toxicological. The sex and age of the aflicted are distinct key. But i believe the reason that they have not found anything yet is the same reason so few are aflicted, namely that its hard to come by even by random.
Btw. i should state that im not an expert, im just a very curious guy. And a soon to be med student. I like your blogg ^ ^ jw
In some cases the problem can get to a point where couples wonder if the connection is genuinely even worth rescuing.
They’re investing less time together, they’re sleeping apart and they are irritable
and tired a lot of the time.
Did they all receive the Gaurdicil vaccine? The one to prevent hpv?
And what relevance would that have. Gardasil is perfectly safe as shown in massive epidemiological studies including one with nearly 200,000 women. Not one single adverse event except for fainting when injected common to all vaccines. But, despite this ridiculous rumor, they checked. Some had been vaccinated but not all. But even if all were vaccinated with the HPV vaccine, it isn’t causal. The numbers are too small to show correlation let alone causation.
I am a 36 year old male living on the eastern shore in delaware. I was diagnosed in 2002 with chronic panic disorder. I was put on 100 mgs of zoloft a day and 2 mgs of klonipin twice a day…… in 2007 I took it upon myself to try to get off of the meds. Within a month I started having serious tics. My tics were mainly in my arms. Once I got back on my klonipin, my tics slowly went away. I don’t know if klonipin will help these girls, but it really helped me. God Bless your children. I know personally what their going through. If you or your children have any questions or need help feel free to email me at edbockster@gmail.com