Funny how few studies there are on induced insanity and contagious epidemic delusions. The latter are usually written off as 'culture bound insanities.

Such as Koro

“Koro refers to a syndrome, which has for its central theme a fear of death due to the person’s conviction that his penis is shrinking into the abdomen. The panic-stricken man often clutches on to his penis with bewildered spouse and relatives assisting.

Koro is becoming rare these days. But a new mental disease has appeared among the Chinese. Known to the Chinese as wi han zheng, it is a “fear of being cold.” Those afflicted with the disorder put gloves, wool hats and coats even when the weather is sweltering.

7In 1967 there was an outbreak of koro following press reports of Koro cases due to the consumption of pork from a pig that had been inoculated against swine fever. The epidemic struck in October 1967 for about ten days. Newspapers initially reported that some people developed koro after eating the meat of pigs inoculated with anti-swine-flu vaccine. A headline from the Straits Times on November 5, 1967 read: “A Strange Malady Hits Singapore Men.” Rumours relating eating pork and koro spread after a further report of an inoculated pig dying from penile retraction. The cases reported amounted to 97 in a single hospital unit within one day, at five days after the original news report. Government and medical officials alleviated the outbreak only by public announcements over television and in the newspapers. [Source: The annotated budak, , May 14, 2006, Wikipedia]

The use of induced contagious insanities by intelligence services has been continuous at least since the 5'th Dalia Lama, a notorious black magician, sold his services the mongol Khan.

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-2-03.htm

In his paper “Running Amok: A Modern Perspective on a Culture-Bound Syndrome,” Manuel L. Saint Martin, M.D. wrote: “Running amok is considered a rare culture-bound syndrome by current psychiatric classification systems, but there is evidence that it occurs frequently in modern industrialized societies. The general public and the medical profession are familiar with the term running amok, the common usage of which refers to an irrational-acting individual who causes havoc. The term also describes the homicidal and subsequent suicidal behavior of mentally unstable individuals that results in multiple fatalities and injuries to others. Except for psychiatrists, few in the medical community realize that running amok is a bona fide, albeit antiquated, psychiatric condition.

Latah

a mental disorder found in Malaysia, Indonesia Japan and Thailand characterized nonsense mimicking others and trancelike behavior experienced after a sudden fright. People who have latah experiences are called latahs. Most are women. Latahs often do bizarre dances and obey commands, even to take off all their clothes, from people around them. Sometimes they sweat profusely while in the trace and often claim they have no memory of what they have done after they break out of the trance. Rather than being ostracized as outcasts they are often embraced as celebrities and their outburst became the object of playful practical jokes.

The New York Times magazine described one woman with the disease. When her husband would suddenly clap his hands she began shrieking: “Grasshopper! Grasshopper! Grasshopper! Grasshopper!,” and go into a trance and do a little dance while sweating profusely and laughing hysterically with her teeth bared. The woman developed the disease 35 years after being repeatedly poked. Cats often set her off. When that happened she often shouted the Malaysian slang word for penis.

http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Malaysia/sub5_4b/entry-3638.html