HWN Suggests

Chronic Whiplash is a Medical Mystery

The typical diagnosis for someone presenting with neck pain after an auto accident is a sprain. But a sprain should heal within a couple weeks. And according to one estimate, about 25 percent of whiplash injury patients end up suffering chronic pain.

“Why should neck and back sprains fail to recover when sprains in other parts of the body usually heal without trouble?” writes the psychiatrist Andrew Malleson in his book Whiplash and Other Useful Illnesses. “There is nothing special about neck ligaments and muscles that can account for their failure to do so.”

And there is still no established physical reason why a whiplash injury would cause chronic pain.

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Articles of Interest

Dr Crippen: Doctors must stop playing along with this whiplash charade

A conspiracy between GPs, poor medical science and vulnerable patients has generated a bogus industry.

A pain in the neck

A MOTORIST hits the brakes as the traffic lights turn red. Unfortunately, the driver in the car behind fails to react as fast—and the sound of broken glass and crumpled metal rings out. To the unsuspecting motorist in the first vehicle, three things then happen in quick succession. First, the back of his seat is shoved violently forward into his torso, straightening his spine and forcing his head to rise vertically. Second, the motorist's unrestrained head is flung horizontally backward, as forward momentum from the intruding car is thus dumped into his motionless body. Third, the head starts to rotate as the neck muscles, cartilage and bones try to resist its sudden, violent movement.

Biomechanics of whiplash injury

Despite a large number of rear-end collisions on the road and a high frequency of whiplash injuries reported, the mechanism of whiplash injuries is not completely understood. One of the reasons is that the injury is not necessarily accompanied by obvious tissue damage detectable by X-ray or MRI.

Concussions: A Serious Consequence of Whiplash

Many people think of whiplash as a relatively minor injury, but the consequences of whiplash can be severe and lead to ongoing medical problems.

How to reduce the risk of whiplash in car accidents

Although whiplash is officially classed as a minor injury, symptoms can last for a long time, affecting not only the nation’s health but also impacting on the economy. This is why it is important to limit the risk of whiplash injury.

In One Country, Chronic Whiplash Is Uncompensated (and Unknown)

IN Lithuania, rear-end collisions happen much as they do in the rest of the world. Cars crash, bumpers crumple and tempers flare. But drivers in cars that have been hit there do not seem to suffer the long-term complaints so common in other countries: the headaches or lingering neck pains that have come to be known as chronic whiplash, or whiplash syndrome. Cars are no safer in Lithuania, and the average neck is not any stronger. The difference, a new study says, might be described as a matter of indemnity.

What should I do about Whiplash?

Although whiplash it can be very painful initially, there is lots that you can do to improve the pain and stiffness in your neck. Here we will discuss what it is, how long it tends to last, and our top tips for improving your symptoms.

Whiplash Associated Disorders

Whiplash associated disorders (WAD) is the term used to described injuries sustained as a result of sudden acceleration-deceleration movements. It is considered the most common outcome after "noncatastrophic" motor vehicle accidents.[1] The term WAD is often used synonymously with the term Whiplash however whiplash refers to the mechanism of injury rather than the presence of symptoms such as pain, stiffness, muscle spasm and headache, in the absence of a lesion or structural pathology

Whiplash Treatments Found to Be Ineffective

An international team of experts who reviewed more than 10,000 scientific articles published in the last 15 years found little scientifically rigorous evidence to justify most existing therapies, and also found that most are prescribed by doctors who are poorly trained in caring for whiplash patients. Standard therapies are often ineffective, and sometimes may even be harmful, the authors of the study said. Even the few therapies that have been tested in a scientific manner, such as soft collars, muscle relaxants and other drugs, seem to be ineffective.

Whiplash – 3 Surprising Facts

You don’t have to slam into a brick wall at 40 MPH to get whiplash. Researchers have actually shown that whiplash can happen at low-speed crashes less than 5 MPH.

Why Whiplash Pain Is Often Delayed

Just as a sore muscle becomes painful hours or even days after a workout occurs, whiplash can become painful hours or even days after an injury. This happens because the body takes time to swell in the area around the injury and to register the swelling that has occurred.

Resources

5 Facts About Whiplash

Also called a neck strain or sprain, it occurs when the head suddenly snaps forward, then backward — a whip-like motion that overstretches the joints, muscles and ligaments of the neck and upper back. Here are five things you may not know about this well-known injury.