Cellphones create new texting illness

21 March 2005
Source: New Zealand Herald

Cellphones have created a new illness dubbed texting tendonitis.

South Australian GP Robert Menz reported the case of a 13-year-old girl who walked into his surgery this year with a swollen right forearm. There was no history of trauma, or recalled change of activity", Dr Menz wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia. "Further enquiry revealed that she had been given a mobile phone in December."

Dr Menz said the teenager's plan allowed A$100 (NZ$108) credit that had to be used in a month, equating to nearly 300 SMS messages, or 10 a day. "The phone and plan also allowed up to 760 characters per message, instead of the usual 160," he said. "The patient had been using only her right thumb to press the keypad."

Dr Menz diagnosed texting tendonitis which settled rapidly with rest, application of naproxen gel twice daily for two days and the use of both hands to operate the keypad of her phone.

"To my knowledge, this is the first report of this condition in Australia, although other unusual overuse injuries of the hand have been described with Nintendo playing," he wrote.

"Perhaps the manufacturers of mobile phones should include health warnings of the risk of overuse injury as part of product labelling."

The condition is expected to become a worldwide trend.

In January, an Italian doctor diagnosed the condition in a 14-year-old patient after she complained of serious pain in her thumb, making it impossible to move. Dr Mauro Novello, a GP in northern Italy, initially thought she had hurt it playing tennis. But when her mobile phone rang during the consultation, Dr Novello asked how often she used her phone. The teenager told her doctor she sent about 100 text messages a day.

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