Precollision Medical Diagnoses Predict Chronic Neck Pain Following Acute Whiplash Trauma

Objectives: The reason why some individuals develop chronic symptoms, whiplash-associated disorder, following whiplash trauma is poorly understood. We explored whether precollision pain-related diagnoses, medically unexplained symptoms, and psychiatric diagnoses are related to whiplash-associated disorder. Materials and Methods: A cohort of 719 individuals exposed to whiplash trauma and subsequently experiencing symptoms within 72 hours (whiplash-exposed cohort) and 3595 matched controls were included in this observational prospective study. At 12 months postcollision, the whiplash-exposed cohort rated their neck pain using the Visual Analog Scale. Data on health were obtained from the Danish National Patient Register for the whiplash-exposed cohort and for the controls for a 5-year period before collision. Results: The whiplash-exposed cohort had significantly increased incidences of precollision pain-related diagnoses: χ2(1)=17.42, P
Source: The Clinical Journal of Pain - Category: Anesthesiology Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research