Whiplash? Is it all in the head?

[Deetee]

Expectations for Recovery Important in the Prognosis of Whiplash Injuries.

Another study which adds to the accruing body of evidence that one's expectations of recovery actually influence recovery. This ties in with the psychology behind the placebo effect.

 

[fuelair]

Not all - unless the x-rays lie!!

 

[Bikewer]

Back when I was writing a lot of accident reports, I used to think there was a whiplash "reflex".
Typical scenario. We'd get the call as a "10-50" (accident) "nature unknown". That is, whoever called in didn't know if anyone was hurt. (no cell phones back then)
So, you'd arrive on the scene and the two drivers would be chatting and showing each other their licenses and insurance papers.
You'd say, "Is anyone hurt?"
Like magic, both drivers would reach for the back of their necks and say, "Well, my neck is a little stiff..."

 

[Rob Lister]

the cure for whiplash is an insurance settlement

 

[blutoski]

Expectations for Recovery Important in the Prognosis of Whiplash Injuries.

A study that is useful from an insurance adjustor's point of view, but of no medical value. The key problem is that they are only able to correspond a patients expectations with a patient's unconfirmable report of recovery. There is no objective measure of recovery. Whiplash has no actual diagnostic criteria. The results were entirely self-reported by mail-in reply, which lends to selection bias in favour of positive results.

An alternative hypothesis: patients who knew at the beginning that they would fabricate or exaggerate the duration of their injury to milk insurance did so, and were more motivated to respond to the questionnaire.

An alternative hypothesis: patients who were convinced they had a more serious injury interpreted normal discomfort to be connected with the original injury rather than with their actual new causes, and accidentally reported them as such.

This is useful for insurance agents, but of no benefit to medicine whatsoever.

Another study which adds to the accruing body of evidence that one's expectations of recovery actually influence recovery.

That's doubtful. What we know is that reported expectations are correlated to reported health outcomes in an environment where patients have a motive to falsify their reporting. We don't know whether they're correlated to actual health outcomes.

This ties in with the psychology behind the placebo effect.

I suppose so.

Note that it also ties in with the psychology of belief in the placebo effect.

 

[Beausoleil]

[anecdote]

I was in a minor bump a few years ago in international company. It was interesting that the single American present's first response was to check for whiplash symptoms. I wondered if it was personal injury training at work.

[/anecdote]

But it would be interesting to see a study of whiplash symptoms by nationality. The victim of a minor accident who claims whiplash seems like a recurring meme in US popular culture.

 

[Modified]

But it would be interesting to see a study of whiplash symptoms by nationality. The victim of a minor accident who claims whiplash seems like a recurring meme in US popular culture.

Probably not just the US. Google for Lithuania whiplash .