Slacker or Sick

dancpsu writes "Researchers at Temple University's College of Health Professions found that early nerve damage caused by repetitive strain injuries can trigger "sick worker" syndrome -- often mistaken for poor performance. They discovered that nerve injuries caused by low-force, highly repetitive work can be blamed on an onslaught of cytokines -- proteins that help start inflammation. Unexpectedly, the researchers also found that the cytokines affected the rats' psychosocial responses. At three weeks, even before the rats experienced pain from their wrist injuries, they began to self-regulate their work behavior. By five weeks to eight weeks, when cytokine production reached "peak" levels, some rats curled up in a ball and slept in between tasks."

Comments

A good reason to stop reading Slashdot tonight

[saskboy]

"Early nerve damage caused by repetitive strain injuries can trigger "sick worker" syndrome -- characterized by malaise, fatigue and depression"

If this doesn't prompt you to get up from your computer and go to bed a bit earlier tonight, there's no hope for you, in other words. You'll be involluntarily curled up like a rat ball, if you don't take charge of your wrist health.

Re:A good reason to stop reading Slashdot tonight

[jefe7777]

....must

(heavy breathing) ....turn

(straining reaching) ....off

(eyes watering) ....the

(millimeters from powerbutton) ....inter...net

(hand shaking violently) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! my precious! evil hobitses!

/me quickly opens 12 more firefox tabs

How did they cause these injuries?

[maxarturo]

What kind of exercises give rats "wrist injuries"? Did they get little rat-sized keyboards?

Re:How did they cause these injuries?

[Nefarious Wheel]

What kind of exercises give rats "wrist injuries"? Did they get little rat-sized keyboards?

Generally, typing up disclaimers, authoring EULA's, looking up court settlements, writing very large bills, initiating and responding to litigation, in no particular order.

Re:How did they cause these injuries?

[Kjella]

Generally, typing up disclaimers, authoring EULA's, looking up court settlements, writing very large bills, initiating and responding to litigation, in no particular order.

The rats don't deserve that comparison.

Cytokines

[Red Flayer]

Here's some more info on Cytokines:

http://microvet.arizona.edu/Courses/MIC419/Tutoria ls/cytokines.html

I wish TFA was a little more specific on which kind of cytokines they found... I guess we'll have to wait for the human studies.

Really, though, this should be no surprise. It's been known for some time that stress to the body results in immunological cytokine release.

The symptoms (pre-RSS) that they mention, like depression, fatigue, etc, are eerily similar to Epstein-Barr... I wonder if the immne system is revved up by the repetitive motions (hence feeling sick), or inhibited, like the EBV toxin.

Re:Cytokines

[walders]

Not really... Serum cytokines simply means that's where they measured them. They aren't necessarily specific to the blood: the cells that release them are equally capable of releasing them in tissue. These cytokines appear to be released from damaged nerve tissue.

The significance of them being in the serum is that they are circulating and are able to have systemic effects rather than just local (e.g tissue) effects.

They don't list the cytokines becuase the publication is a news site for medics. If the work is good enough, it'll be published in a respectable journal somewhere with details of cytokines and levels. You won't have to wait for the human study. Most rodent cytokines have a human equivalent and vice versa (with some notable exceptions (IL-8 for one)). The human study will just be ensuring that this effect does cross over.

It isn't unusual to see cytokine release from stressed or damaged tissue. It is unusual to see physosocial effects. The key observation is that some behaviour, thought to be plain laziness or 'mental' problems, may actually be explained by more basic physiological explanations.

Re:slacker or sick

[Jozer99]

Not only were the rats sleepy, but their code was buggy as hell.

"low-force, highly repetitive work"

[BocaJuniors]

Hello, Peter. We need to talk about your TPS reports.

Two words:

[StandardDeviant]

Middle.

Management.

*shrug* If they didn't hire rats, there'd be unemployed MBAs and JDs clogging up the gutters. It's as much a public health issue as anything else.

Re:That explains it!

[grammar fascist]

No wonder I've been nodding off at wo...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Amazing! Your head hit just the 'z' key, and held down the SHIFT key simultaneously for the first one! And then, somehow, your computer submitted your comment. How do you do that?

I wish I could do that.

Anyway, more seriously: Why is this story tagged as humor? I read the article, and there's really nothing funny in it.

Not that that stops us from taking it lightly, of course.

Re:Am i the only one...

[softweyr]

who felt just like the rats?

Re:Rats?

[Skater]

I had to stop reading it about halfway through because I couldn't stand the patronizing tone. I kept thinking, "Okay, I get it. I have to look for opportunities, and I shouldn't let myself get too comfortable, and I should be ready for a sudden upheaval. What's your next point?" But there never was another point - it just kept bashing those into the readers' heads. I felt like ripping the book in half.

And I had a similar (but not as pronounced) reaction: I remembered that I work to live, not live to work.

Re:That explains it!

[BorgHunter]

MAYNARD: It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Matt Perry. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'.
ARTHUR: What?
MAYNARD: '... the Castle of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'.
BEDEVERE: What is that?
MAYNARD: He must have fallen asleep while typing it.
LAUNCELOT: Oh, come on!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what it says.
ARTHUR: Look, if he was falling asleep, he wouldn't bother to type 'Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'. He'd just snore it!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what's written in the post!
GALAHAD: Perhaps he was dictating.
ARTHUR: Oh, shut up.