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A total of 20 patients - almost all of them girls enrolled at Le Roy Junior/Senior High School - first began exhibiting involuntary movements in October 2011 in this working class town about 50 miles east of Buffalo. Doctors and state health department officials made the quick but controversial diagnoses of conversion disorder, in which psychological stress causes patients to suffer physical symptoms, and mass psychogenic illness, in which members of a tight-knit group subconsciously copy behavior

As the problem spiraled in the tiny community, celebrity doctors like Dr. Drew Pinsky hosted some of the girls on national television, others girls appeared regularly on local television and in print media with headlines about their "mystery illness." The girls posted updates on their seemingly bizarre condition to Facebook and videos of their symptoms to YouTube. "We noticed that the kids who were not in the media were getting better; the kids who were in the media were still very symptomatic," Mechtler said. "One thing we've learned is how social media and mainstream media can worsen the symptoms," he said. "The mass hysteria was really fueled by the national media, social media - all this promoted the worsening of symptoms by putting these people at the national forefront."

The psychological diagnosis was a hard sell to parents of the students whose suburban lives were suddenly turned upside down. Fitzsimmons said while she agrees with Mechtler's diagnosis, she understands the difficulty other patients' have accepting it. "Because it's considered a psychological diagnosis, they think psychological issues mean they're crazy, she said. "I just never understood how connected the mind and body actually are."