Background
Central sensitisation is associated
with chronic pain in whiplash patients.
Predicting which patients will develop
central sensitisation is difficult but patient
expectations of recovery predict a variety
of outcomes in whiplash patients.
Discussion
Whiplash patients who expect ‘never to
get better’ or ‘don’t know’ have a much
higher likelihood of developing at least
one sign of central sensitisation
3 months after their collision.
Results
Adjusting for a number of predictors,
patient expectation of recovery was
found to predict the results of the BPPT.
Subjects who expected ‘to get better
soon’ had a BPPT angle that was
42 degrees less (ie. closer to normal or
full range) than any of the subjects who
had poor recovery expectations.
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