I have upper back pain that has been going on for a few years now. My doctor initially thought it was because of stress and linked it with muscle spasms. No medicine or treatment has helped and sometimes when the pain is very severe it travels my front just below my ribs and hurts to take deep breaths. My mom is a nurse and we have been researching costochondritis because that seems to have similar symptons to what I am experiencing when the pain is really bad. My question is is costochondritis at all linked to back pain?