There are instances where you would anticipate larger spikes of RSD, such as military in active combat. Also, the plethora of hand surgeries caused by overuse of computers (in the past 20 years) might account for a chunk of the rising numbers. But, unless there are environmental factors contributing that I've never heard of, multiple legitimate RSD diagnoses in a rural area is surprising.

I'm not suggesting that they're all faking RSD, or don't have serious health issues. But rather that docs in a rush to treat potential RSD patients aggressively and early (which is commendable), are assigning a diagnosis of RSD prematurely.

I've actually used the question of how many RSD patients have you treated as my beginning question to determine a doc's credibility (excluding RSD specialists, of course.) Even a regular pain doc should only have seen a relatively small number of RSD patients over the years. If their numbers are over inflated, I know they're throwing everyone with neuropathic pain under the RSD umbrella. Question them further about some of "our" non-pain related RSD complications, and from their confusion, you'll see what I mean.