Epidemic of Conversion Disorder in Janaozen, The Northern Kazakhstan

Abstract

Janaozen, a small city in the Northern Kazakhstan is an oil town, where 8% of all Kazakh oil has been extracted since 1950s. Due to the harsh climate and uncomfortable living conditions on the one hand, and relatively high salaries on the other, the city became a “Mecca” for ethnic Kazakhs (oralmans), who migrated from the other countries of the former USSR. The strict division between “ours” and “oralmans” created a variety of predispositions for the existence of a recurrent intro-city conflict, which served as a background for the tragic events of December 2011. The strike of oil workers ended in a bloody carnage with long-lasting consequences. The high level of traumatic stress, secondary gain of traumatization, and relative isolation of oralmans created plausible conditions for explosion of mass conversion disorder, which in social consciousness was associated with measles vaccination.

On 16th of February, 20 teenagers were hospitalized with seizures of unknown aetiology, 60 girls got sick during the next three days, and 195 were hospitalized during the next three weeks. More than 100 were receiving an outpatient treatment. Foggy diagnosis of “post-vaccine reaction” led to panic among citizens, and a small city hospital became overcrowded by relatives of patients. The diagnosis of conversion disorder had been supported according to the criteria of ICD-10.

The results of numerous focus groups, archival research and individual interviews showed up the precise connections between oil workers’ strike in 2011 and mass conversion disorder in 2015.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.