Among them are:
- Repetitive stress injury (RSI)
- Repetitive stress disorder (RSD)
- Repetitive strain injury (RSI)
- Repetitive strain disorder (RSD)
- Repetitive motion injury (RMI)
- Repetitive motion disorder (RMD)
- Repetitive injury
- Overuse syndrome
- Cumulative trauma disorder (CTD)
- Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD)
As you can see it can get quite confusing.
The term one uses is usually determined by their training and education. Furthermore some terms do have some semantic differences. However, for all practical purposes, these terms can be interchanged. So what do they all mean anyway?
A Repetitive Stress Injury, or RSI, is simply an injury caused by physically stressing a body part repetitively. The stress can be major or minor, but it is the continuous stressing that eventually causes the injury. Repetitive stress injury is the term this site will use to refer to any and all of these conditions
A Repetitive Stress Disorder, or RSD, is the same as a repetitive stress injury except for a word change. Some people feel more comfortable classifying these conditions as disorders. In this way an injury is something that is broken, whereas a disorder is something worse than normal. It is really six of one, half a dozen of another.
A Repetitive Strain Injury, or RSI (again), is simply an injury caused by physically straining a body part repetitively. See the similarity? Again some people simply feel more comfortable classifying this type of action as a strain. Stress would be the mental fatigue we all know as stress and strain would be physically overexerting a body part.
A Repetitive Strain Disorder, or RSD, follows the pattern above.
A Repetitive Motion Injury, or RMI, is an injury caused by performing the same motion over and over again. This term becomes a little more descriptive. It also has a narrower focus. Not all repetitive stress injuries are caused solely by repetitive motion.
A Repetitive Motion Disorder, or RMD, is another injury versus disorder alternative.
A Repetitive Injury is an injury caused by repetition. It does not matter if it is stress, strain or motion. It only matters if it is repetitive.
Overuse Syndrome is a condition where you have overused something to the point of injury. This is a little broader than your typical definition for repetitive stress injury. Although repetition usually plays a key role in developing it, overuse does not have to occur through a repetitive action.
A Cumulative Trauma Disorder, or CTD, is a disorder (injury) that occurs through the build up of trauma over time. The trauma can be acute (happening in an isolated event) or repetitive. It is the weakening or the body part through repeat trauma that finally causes it to break down. This is probably the best term to use, but it is quite a mouthful so it does not get as much air play as the others.
A Musculoskeletal Disorder is a condition that affects the muscles or bones. Since most repetitive stress injuries can lead to body deformation if left uncorrected musculoskeletal disorders fit right in. However, since there are a number of repetitive stress injuries that do not affect muscles or bones, it does not describe the entirety of what we are discussing.
So which one should you use? It does not really matter. Use whatever term the people around you know. After all words are only to let us communicate better. And we all know what we are talking about, even if we can not name it.
