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."Ads_xl=0;Ads_yl=0;Ads_xp='';Ads_yp='';Ads_xp1='';Ads_yp1='';Ads_par='';Ads_cnturl='';Ads_prf='page=article';Ads_channels='RON_P6_IMU';Ads_wrd='humor,science';Ads_kid=0;Ads_bid=0;Ads_sec=0; Slacker or Sick Log in/Create an Account | Top | 20 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 20 comments 0: 19 comments 1: 15 comments 2: 11 comments 3: 1 comments 4: 0 comments 5: 0 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. A good reason to stop reading Slashdot tonight (Score:2, Insightful) by saskboy (600063) on Thursday October 27, @12:46AM (#13886925) (http://www.abandonedstuff.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 25, @10:38PM) "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. [ Reply to ThisRe:A good reason to stop reading Slashdot tonight by Spy der Mann (Score:2) Thursday October 27, @12:57AM slacker or sick (Score:1) by funkapimpalicious (793969) on Thursday October 27, @12:47AM (#13886929) Man, I have been having the 'slacks' at work all week. I have also been having a lot of wrist/lower back pain because I have been doing a repetetive 'closing old records' task. This makes me think that I am not going through coffee withdrawal alone, but rather feeling the effects of RSD.Anyone else?-funkapimpalicious [ Reply to This I have emotionally damaging wrist pain. (Score:1) by joNDoty (774185) on Thursday October 27, @12:48AM (#13886933) Rats! [ Reply to This Workers = Rats (Score:2) by Cave_Monster (918103) on Thursday October 27, @12:49AM (#13886934) The scoop seemed a little strange and had me confused for a while. It started nice and clear before jumping from talking about workers to researchers and rats. What the!? Didn't people learn creative writing at school? A story must have a start, middle and end. Not just a start and an end :) [ Reply to This I'm confused (Score:2) by confused philosopher (666299) on Thursday October 27, @12:49AM (#13886935) (http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday February 05, @03:01PM) When did employers ACTUALLY start hiring real rats for the rat race?Oh, sorry, I read the story a bit more carefully now. Never mind. [ Reply to ThisRe:I'm confused by jazman_777 (Score:1) Thursday October 27, @12:53AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. That explains it! (Score:2) by Matt Perry (793115) <perrym3 AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday October 27, @12:51AM (#13886943) No wonder I've been nodding off at wo...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz [ Reply to This oh boy (Score:2) by GenKreton (884088) on Thursday October 27, @12:51AM (#13886945) Damn, now they really have a reason to block slashdot at work places: it adds to RSI and then "sick worker syndrome" [ Reply to This Am i the only one... (Score:2) by silverkniveshotmail. (713965) * on Thursday October 27, @12:52AM (#13886948) (Last Journal: Sunday October 23, @02:24AM) ...who felt sorry for the rats? [ Reply to This Just like a kitten! (Score:2) by Black Parrot (19622) on Thursday October 27, @12:53AM (#13886950) > By five weeks to eight weeks, when cytokine production reached "peak" levels, some rats curled up in a ball and slept in between tasks.I do that at work from time to time as well. [ Reply to This How did they cause these injuries? (Score:1) by maxarturo (71956) on Thursday October 27, @12:55AM (#13886967) What kind of exercises give rats "wrist injuries"? Did they get little rat-sized keyboards? [ Reply to This Rats? (Score:2) by Associate (317603) on Thursday October 27, @12:57AM (#13886969) (http://slashdot.org/) Who Moved My Cheese [whomovedmycheese.com] if you really want to be insulted. [ Reply to This Personally, I'm a slaker (Score:2) by slaker (53818) on Thursday October 27, @12:57AM (#13886971) Personally, I'm a slaker. But I come by that naturally. My father, and his father, and his father, were all slakers. It is the way of our people. [ Reply to This Cytokines (Score:3, Informative) by Red Flayer (890720) on Thursday October 27, @12:59AM (#13886979) Here's some more info on Cytokines: http://microvet.arizona.edu/Courses/MIC419/Tutoria ls/cytokines.html [arizona.edu] 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. [ Reply to This4 replies beneath your current threshold.