(Image source: NBC)

BY STACEY WELSH
ANCHOR EMILY SPAIN

You're watching multisource health news analysis by Newsy.

Twelve teenage girls in a small town near Rochester, New York want an answer to why they suddenly developed Tourette’s-like symptoms. The girls all go to the same high school.

17-year-old Thera Sanchez told NBC's The Today Show her symptoms came out of nowhere when she woke up from a nap last October.

“There was nothing going wrong. I just woke up, and that’s when the stuttering started. I want an answer, a straight answer.”

The girls’ symptoms vary in severity, but since they all attend the same school, The Today Show reports that a private company inspected the girls’ high school in December to rule out environmental causes.  It found no problems. 

WGRZ spoke with a doctor who treated some of the girls. She wants some of the hysteria surrounding the cases to stop.

“There’s nothing anyone is going to catch, they’re not going to get sick related to this. I just want people to take that away. There’s nothing contagious.”

Experts have come up with a diagnosis. Dr. Lazlo Mechler of the DENT institute says the girls are suffering from Mass Hysteria- a condition where a group of people believe they share common symptoms, and so the symptoms appear. But as CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains, the girls don’t even have much in common.

“We know they go to the same school, but they’re in different grades, they’re not necessarily friends with each other. They don’t all participate in the same activities.”

Some of the girls were taking the Gardasil HPV vaccine.  But CNN is reporting that it did not cause the disorder.  Meanwhile the DENT institute expects the girls’ symptoms to reduce over time.  They have not released specific plans for treatment, but they are optimistic about the girls’ recoveries.

Transcript by Newsy.