Active exercise better than soft collar for whiplash injury
Two articles on PainSci cite Vassiliou 2006: 1. Mobilize! 2. The Art of Rest
PainSci commentary on Vassiliou 2006: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
German researchers compared about 100 whiplash victims who were immobilized “with a soft collar over 7 days” to another 100 or so who received “10 physical therapy appointments including active exercises within 14 days after enrollment.” They found unequivocally that “a physical therapy regimen which includes active exercises is superior in reducing pain 6 weeks and 6 months after whiplash injury.”
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
The aim of this study was to compare the effect of a physical therapy regimen including active exercises with the current standard treatment on reduction of pain 6 weeks and 6 months after whiplash injury caused by motor vehicle collision. Two hundred patients were enrolled in a prospective randomized controlled trial. In the standard group, treatment consisted of immobilization with a soft collar over 7 days. In the physical therapy group, patients were scheduled for 10 physical therapy appointments including active exercises within 14 days after enrollment. Pain intensity was rated by all patients daily during the first week, the sixth week, and 6 months after recruitment, using a numeric rating scale (0-10). Data analyses were performed by comparing the mean (over 1 week) pain scores between the two different treatment groups. Ninety-seven patients were randomly assigned to the standard treatment group and 103 to the physical therapy group. During the first week, there was no significant difference in mean pain intensity between the standard treatment group (4.76+/-2.15) and the physical therapy group (4.36+/-2.14). However, after 6 weeks, mean pain intensity was significantly (p=0.002) lower in the physical therapy group (1.49+/-2.26 versus 2.7+/-2.78). Similarly, after 6 months, significantly (p<0.001) less pain was reported in the physical therapy group (1.17+/-2.13) than the standard treatment group (2.33+/-2.56). We conclude that a physical therapy regimen which includes active exercises is superior in reducing pain 6 weeks and 6 months after whiplash injury compared to the current standard treatment with a soft collar.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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- Association of Lumbar MRI Findings with Current and Future Back Pain in a Population-based Cohort Study. Kasch 2022 Spine (Phila Pa 1976).
- A double-blinded randomised controlled study of the value of sequential intravenous and oral magnesium therapy in patients with chronic low back pain with a neuropathic component. Yousef 2013 Anaesthesia.
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards 2021 Phys Ther.
- Sudden amnesia resulting in pain relief: the relationship between memory and pain. Choi 2007 Pain.