Stress and numbness

[Exci]

Greetings, here's my story in short:

       I'm 22 years old, and was diagnosed with ulnar neuritis on my left elbow august '11, with pretty minor symptoms (pinky was statically numb for a 2-3 weeks). After it passed, I had 6 months of just an odd sensation of touch on my pinky and no numbness at all. However around mid February '12, my pinky and ring finger started having moments of numbness again (not 100% static). Since then it has remained the same, except the intensity of the numbness is varied throughout the day. I've stopped my gym workouts since february so it generally not overworking the arm, however I'm working 10-12 hours a day on the computer, so I spend a lot of time typing. But what i've noticed is, it goes worse when I'm stressed with university projects or similar stressful situations (I'd say as a person I stress more than I should).

       So my question is: is stress reflected on my nerves just because there is some underlying cause making the nerve worse  (which means being stressed otherwise wouldn't have an impact), or could stress be the actual cause of numbness (would be a bit weird since its just on my pinky and nowhere else on my body)? When I used to stress in the past I had no such symptoms.

Note that I haven't experienced pain or grip strength loss throughout this whole thing ever since it started last August.

Thank you,
Steffan

[Exci]

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention a few important details:

I took a neck MRI and elbow/wrist EMG in March, which showed no blocking of the nerve at any point. Also in the latest EMG the nerve looked better than it was in August.

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hey Steffan!

Well, though stress could cause similar problems, these would tend to be more generalized involving other regions as well. I would suspect this to be another episode of neuritis, nerve compression/ impingement or setting in of a neuropathy. Micronutrient deficiencies could result in similar symptoms. I would suggest getting this evaluated by a primary care physician or a neurologist for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate management.
Hope this is helpful.

Take care!