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And soon another theory added to the confusion: that fibrositis was rooted in the psyche.

The condition is popularly known as “stiff neck,” and is probably associated with fibrositis of the affected muscles.

In pleurodynia—intercostal fibrositis—the pain is in the line of the intercostal nerves, and is excited by movement of the chest, as in coughing, or by any bodily exertion.

In 1880 an American neurologist had attributed what would come to be called fibrositis to the stress and anxiety of modern life.

One group suggested fibrositis be called “psychogenic rheumatism”; another claimed it arose “independently of gross anatomical disease…”