Intensive treatment for whiplash delays recovery
A recent study in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatology published in June 2007 looked at early intensive treatment for whiplash injuries Link......
They studied 1700 people in Canada who had whiplash injuries in the latter part of 1994. They looked at eight different patterns of care including use of general practitioners, chiropractors and specialists. They also measured the number of visits.
They found that patients who used doctors less had the fastest recovery. Those who used chiropractors more had a 25% slower recovery.
In the high utilisation of general practitioners as well as chiropractors group the recovery was 36% slower.
The authors concluded that intensive use of health care early after whiplash injury is associated with slower recovery. In particular the combination of using chiropractors and general practitioners significantly slows people’s recovery from whiplash.
We know from previous research that whiplash recovers almost always within three months where there is no compensation involved. Two important studies in Lithuania demonstrated this conclusively:
Lithuanian study 1996 in the Lancet...
It is worth looking at these studies in detail as they are well conducted and extremely convincing.
It is also worth noting that research has been carried out in Toronto whereby they looked at stock car drivers who go through thousands of significant collisions throughout their career. These people do not suffer any long-term neck symptoms.
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