In my experience, yes.<p>I switched to Dvorak a couple years ago, and I've been glad I did.  I used to have terrible pain in my wrists and forearms.  For eliminating pain, switching to Dvorak was as effective as switching to an expensive ergonomic keyboard.<p>I went cold turkey, so I felt like a stroke patient for the first four days.  It was a very awkward and frustrating feeling.  Within a week, I could type fast enough to code.  (Coding doesn't require a fast typing speed.)  It took about two weeks to get back to email/IM speed.<p>I'm probably not as fast as I was at QWERTY (110 wpm -&#62; 90 wpm), but I'm certainly fast enough.  If I do 15 years on Dvorak, I'll probably reach 110 wpm again.<p>I'd recommend doing an hour of typing exercises each day, and napping after each exercise to let it sink in.  Each time I woke up from a nap, I was <i>much</i> better at the exercise from before the nap.<p>I wrote up my experience on my blog if you're interested:<p><a href="http://matt.might.net/articles/preventing-and-managing-rsi/" rel="nofollow">http://matt.might.net/articles/preventing-and-managing-rsi/</a>