Aggressive Treatment For Whiplash Does Not Promote Faster Recovery

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Whiplash, the most common traffic injury, leads to neck pain, headache and other symptoms, resulting in a significant burden of disability and health care utilization. Although there are few effective treatments for whiplash, a growing body of evidence suggests that the type and intensity of treatment received shortly after the injury have a long-lasting influence on the prognosis. A new study published in the June 2007 issue of Arthritis Care & Research examined whether the association between early types of care and recovery time shown in an earlier study was reproducible with whiplash compensated under tort insurance.A previous study led by Pierre Côté, of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, found that patients compensated under no-fault insurance had a longer recovery if they visited general practitioners numerous times and/or consulted chiropractors or specialists than if they just visited general … Read more

Study Helps Define Headaches Of Whiplash

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If you happen to be looking left or right when your car is rear-ended, you could be lucky enough to avoid the headache of whiplash. A new study at the University of Alberta shows that whiplash injuries in low-speed accidents are much less likely if the victim’s head happens to be turned to either side instead of facing front when the vehicle is struck. The research involving neck muscles is giving a solid scientific definition to whiplash that may help identify and establish soft tissue injuries–if any are actually suffered in the course of an accident. Results from the study appear in the November, 2004 issue of Clinical Biomechanics. The findings, based on research begun at the university in 1999, will help clear up the murky definition of whiplash–injuries to the head and neck most commonly suffered in rear-end vehicle … Read more

Is Spinal Manipulation in Children Safe?

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Researchers are calling for the creation of a collaborative registry to assess the risk of serious injuries when treating children using spinal manipulation. A recent study done in part by the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, concludes that although serious adverse events have been identified when spinal manipulation is used to treat children, their true incidence remains unknown, and these events must be better reported. Patient safety demands a greater collaboration between the medical community and other health care professionals, the study suggests. A team of researchers representing multiple professions that provide spinal manipulation conducted the study, the results of which were published in a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics. They reviewed data drawn from 13 international studies conducted over a period of more than 40 years and found that adverse reactions in children appeared to be rare … Read more

How Pain Distracts the Brain

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Anybody who’s tried to concentrate on work while suffering a headache knows that pain compellingly commands attention–which is how evolution helped ensure survival in a painful world. Now, researchers have pinpointed the brain region responsible for pain’s ability to affect cognitive processing. They have found that this pain-related brain region is distinct from the one involved in cognitive processing interference due to a distracting memory task. Ulrike Bingel and colleagues at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf published their discovery in the July 5, 2007 issue of the journal Neuron. To search for the region responsible for pain’s ability to usurp attention, the researchers asked volunteers to perform a cognitive task involving distinguishing images, as well as a working memory task involving remembering images. The researchers asked the volunteers to perform the tasks as they experienced different levels of pain caused … Read more

History Of Migraines Associated With Increased Risk Of Retinopathy

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Middle-aged men and women with a history of migraine and other headaches are more likely to have retinopathy, damage to the retina of the eye which can lead to severe vision problems or blindness, than those without a history of headaches, according to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For the study, published in the May 15, 2007, issue of Neurology, researchers reviewed the headache history and eye health of 10,902 men and women who participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Participants, who were from communities in Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi and North Carolina, were black and white and between the ages of 51 and 71 at the time of their examination. Twenty-two percent of the participants had a history of migraine or other headaches. Those with a history of headaches were slightly … Read more