Why healthy children fall into comas

“Like the princess who ate the poisoned apple.” That’s how neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan describes one of hundreds of children who began “falling asleep” in Sweden around 20 years ago. When the first cases were reported in 2003, these unwakeable children were sent to hospitals where they were poked, prodded, scanned, tested, questioned, observed and sent home – still “sleeping” – by baffled doctors who couldn’t find any biological cause for their condition.

As cases piled up, medics saw a pattern. The majority of “sleepers” were female. All were refugees. Yet their symptoms were not shared by refugees (of similarly diverse backgrounds) living in other countries.

So was their “mystery illness” unique to refugees – aged seven to 19 – living in the relatively welcoming Swedish culture? In most cases, the families’ applications for permanent residence were being challenged, and the children were acting as conduits between the intimidating immigration officials and their own traumatised parents, who didn’t speak Swedish. When the hope of remaining in the only safe place they had known began to look unlikely, they simply climbed into bed and shut down. Some recovered in weeks or months. Others have remained unresponsive for years. As they lay prone in their beds, fed through tubes, the Swedish named it uppgivenhetssyndrom – “given up syndrome”. Or, as we call it, “resignation syndrome”.

To the empathetic, it seems unsurprising that these traumatised children slipped into a condition which insulated them from all physical and emotional stimuli. But more cynical observers labelled them scammers, using any means available (or being exploited by their parents) to stay in liberal Sweden. These critics couldn’t believe it was possible for an apparently healthy human to end up in such a state. But, as O’Sullivan’s brilliant new book shows, we are all capable of falling victim to similar psychosomatic illnesses – slipping into “comas” or suffering “seizures” – when those around us demonstrate it is an acceptable way of externalising internal stresses. The method of getting stuff out differs from culture to culture. All it takes is a locally credible narrative.

In an open-minded exploration of what newspapers still call “mass hysteria”, O’Sullivan found that, in South America, adolescents are visited by sexy demons, and are left writhing on the floor, waiting to be cured by holy water and herbs. In Kazakhstan, people slip from consciousness, convinced they are being dosed with neurotoxins by a government that wants them to relocate. In North America, it’s corporate conspiracy over pollutants.