Text massage

Mobile phone addicts who spend hours on end sending text messages, emails or talking on their phone can now seek a 'BlackBerry Thumb' massage for their sore hands.

Graceful Services, a New York City spa, recently began offering the massage to its customers.

A one-hour session costs $US60 , spa owner Grace Gao Macnow said.

"We concentrate on the muscles related to the fingers, like back muscles, neck muscles and arms," she said.

The Hyatt hotel chain is offering similar massages to its customers at 20 locations throughout the United States.

A 30-minute session costs $US80.

The hotel chain also recently began proposing 10-minute sessions during breaks for business people attending conferences at a Hyatt hotel.

The American Physical Therapy Association last year recognised BlackBerry Thumb as an official workplace malady related to the over-use of any hand-held electronic device.