Pain In The Neck? It Could Be RSI

There are aches that do not go away easily.Most often, people affected by a crick in the neck, a bad back or painful wrists, do not recognize these as symptoms of repetitive stress injury (RSI), the causative factors for which are embedded in a person’s profession or vocation.

“When there is physical stress of a similar kind and repeatedly at the same area, it leads to RSI,” says V.B. Bhasin, honorary senior consultant at the department of orthopaedics, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi.

Computer-dependent professions exhibit the highest incidence of RSI.

In an ongoing study on musculoskeletal disorders among computer professionals in India being conducted by RECOUP—Neuro Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Centre based in Bangalore, more than three-fourths of the 35,000 persons surveyed showed symptoms of RSI.

The areas affected most commonly include the neck, upper back, lower back and the upper extremity, says Deepak Sharan, medical director, RECOUP. A fifth of such patients also suffers from constant pain and numbness.

Also, unlike in the West, where RSI is usually an illness affecting middle-aged women with chronic health disorders, people affected here are mostly healthy men (with an average age of 27).