- Psychiatrists in Germany have seen an increase in patients with tics.
- They say this is being "caught" through social media.
- The term "mass social media-induced illness" has been developed to describe this phenomenon.
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Psychiatrists have identified a new "Tourette-like" illness being spread through social media.
The "mass social media-induced illness" (MSMI) - more traditionally called a mass sociogenic illness, but with a new term being created to fit the new condition - is causing people to develop tics "caught" from social media videos of people ticcing.
A spike in patients presenting with functional tics has been attributed to the rise in social media content showing people ticcing, a group of psychiatrists in Germany have found.
The recent study from experts at the Hanover Medical School, Germany, explains that an increase in patients struggling with tics is positively correlated to a proliferation of videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube of people presenting with Tourette's syndrome.
The paper, published by the Oxford University Press, discusses the German internet fame of Jan Zimmermann, a YouTuber with 2.23 million subscribers on his channel Gewitter im Komf (Thunderstorm in Brain), who states he has...
Read Full Story: https://www.businessinsider.com/tourettes-like-illness-spread-by-social-media-patients-with-tics-2021-9
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