Physical and psychiatric predictors of late whiplash syndrome

Approximately 40% of people who sustain whiplash injuries, complain of chronic physical and psychiatric symptoms. Associations have been found between pre-accident physical symptoms and physical outcome and between pre-accident psychiatric variables and both physical and psychiatric outcome. There are no reported investigations of the association between pre-accident physical symptoms and psychiatric outcome. In this study, 33 consecutive cases of whiplash injury met inclusion criteria from a series of psychiatric reports used in civil litigation. Outcome was measured for each patient and correlated with a range of pre-accident physical and psychiatric variables using multivariate regression. There was no association between pre-accident psychiatric factors and overall outcome. Older age and a pre-accident history of musculoskeletal complaints correlated with the physical and psychiatric outcome. In whiplash injury, pre-accident psychiatric factors may have little bearing on long-term prognosis. Physical and psychiatric outcome of late whiplash syndrome is probably worse in older individuals and in patients with a pre-accident history of musculoskeletal complaints.