Dromomania.

Dromomania, also called traveling fugue, is a psychological condition in which people spontaneously depart their routine, travel long distances and take up different identities and occupations. Months may pass before they return to their former identities. Only a handful of cases were ever documented, nearly all in France in the late nineteenth century.

Wendigo psychosis.

Wendigo Psychosis is a culture-bound disorder which involves an intense craving for human flesh and the fear that one will turn into a cannibal. This once occurred frequently among Algonquian Indian cultures, though has declined with the Native American urbanization.

Arctic hysteria.

Symptoms can include intense hysteria (screaming, uncontrolled wild behavior), depression, coprophagia, insensitivity to extreme cold (such as running around in the snow naked), echolalia (senseless repetition of overheard words) and more. This condition is most often seen in Eskimo women. This culture-bound syndrome is possibly linked to vitamin A toxicity (hypervitaminosis A). The native Eskimo diet provides rich sources of vitamin A and is possibly the cause or a causative factor. The ingestion of organ meats, liver of arctic fish, mammals, where the vitamin is stored in toxic quantities can be fatal. Polar bear liver is one of the few toxic meat sources, for the reason discussed above.

Genital retraction syndrome.

Genital retraction syndrome (GRS), generally considered a culture-specific syndrome, is a condition in which an individual is overcome with the belief that his/her external genitals—or also, in females, breasts—are retracting into the body, shrinking, or in some male cases, may be imminently removed or disappear. A penis panic is a mass hysteria event or panic in which male members of a population suddenly experience this belief.

An epidemic struck Singapore in 1967, resulting in thousands of reported cases. Government and medical officials alleviated the outbreak only by a massive campaign to reassure men of the anatomical impossibility of retraction together with a media blackout on the spread of the condition.

Idiopathic postprandial syndrome.

People with this condition suffer from recurrent episodes of altered mood and cognitive efficiency, often accompanied by weakness and adrenergic symptoms such as shakiness. The episodes typically occur a few hours after a meal, rather than after many hours of fasting.

Latah.

Latah is a condition of hyperstartling found in certain parts of the world that is commonly considered a culture-specific syndrome. It is also the name for those with the condition, which is found mainly in adult women. The afflicted have a severe reaction to being surprised in which they lose control of their behavior, mimic the speech and actions of those around them and sometimes obey any commands given them. Latahs are generally not considered responsible for their actions during these episodes.

Although the word latah is of Middle Eastern origin, it is also used in Southeast Asia. Similar conditions have been recorded within other cultures and locations, such as among French-Canadian lumberjacks in Maine (Jumping Frenchmen of Maine), the Ainu of Japan (imu) and Siberia (miryachit); however, the connection between these syndromes has been controversial.

Morgellons.

The LA Times, in an article on Morgellons, notes that "(t)he recent upsurge in symptoms can be traced directly to the Internet, following the naming of the disease by Mary Leitao, a Pennsylvania mother." Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist who has studied the Morgellons phenomenon, states that the "World Wide Web has become the incubator for mass delusion and it (Morgellons) seems to be a socially transmitted disease over the Internet."

Fred Savage.