ABSTRACT
Common fidgetiness has no physical basis, is quite unrelated to chorea, and consequently to rheumatic heart disease, and is usually best left untreated, and as far as possible unnoticed. In a typical case of common fidgetiness the restlessness is part of the child’s nature. It is the whole child that is affected. Diagnosis of common fidgetiness is usually easy, but in some cases the fidgetiness so much resembles that of chorea that only by the careful taking of a history of the case can a diagnosis be made. Common fidgetiness does not directly predispose to chorea, and there is no relation between tics and chorea. It is true that chorea is sometimes related to overstrain and can be started by a fright; the link between chorea and the child’s straining to do well, or reacting to fright, is not understood.
