A total of 75 people, including 57 children, have been taken to the hospital in the Russian republic in the Caucasus since an unknown illness hit the republic.
A Moscow medical commission issued a final diagnosis December 23, attributing the illness, which has mainly affected children and teenagers, to psycho-emotional stress.
Zurab Kikalidze, deputy head of the well-known Serbsky Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, told reporters that the people of the war-torn republic had been living under constant stress in recent years.
"Mostly children and teenagers, primarily girls, have been affected by the disease," he said.
Kikalidze called for long-term measures to fight the illness.
"A plan for the psychological and social rehabilitation of the whole population needs to be drawn up," he said.
