Why Don't We Talk About Carpal Tunnel Anymore?

The Atlantic takes a look at a white collar epidemic that fizzled out
By Gina Carey,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 12, 2023 3:30 PM CST
Do People Still Get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
   (Getty / PeopleImages)

If you are reading this from a standing desk while wearing blue light glasses, chances are you've heard of the dangers associated with spending long stretches of time on devices. Whether or not you heed those warnings, there was a time when you couldn't escape think pieces examining the hazards of office work, namely carpal tunnel syndrome. The Atlantic's Benjamin Ryan takes a deep dive into the rise and fall of carpal tunnel's prevalence in media during the late '80s and early '90s, and questions why the apex of the "crippled by computers" era revolved around a painful ailment that seems to have lost relevance today.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a type of repetitive stress injury (RSI), and as RSIs were being documented in factory work, Ryan says many journalists covering those stories made a connection to the pain caused by repetitive motions frequently performed on newsroom computers in the late '80s and early '90s. Increased media coverage inadvertently gave carpal tunnel syndrome enough buzz to make it a household (and water cooler) name. That, along with less than stellar diagnosis tools, created a boom in people diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. By 1993, RSI cases rose tenfold from 10 years prior—but just as quickly, the diagnoses among white collar workers shrank back down.

Ryan poses three questions to understand what exactly happened: were people over diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome? Or have workplace ergonomics and lighter-touch keyboards helped bypass repetitive stress? And last, perhaps it still exists widely, but without resources or a path toward disability, people are now underreporting their pain as they work from home more, and are picking up new devices, like smart phones. Per the Washington Post, a recent study found that patients diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome logged more hours on their phones than people without wrist and hand pain. "The public and also scientists have lost interest in the topic," says Pieter Coenen, the lead author on a meta-analysis of carpal tunnel. "I don't think the problem has actually resolved." Read the full story here. (More stories involving workplace safety).

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