More than 70 percent of car crash victims experience chronic neck pain approximately six weeks after the accident, a new study finds.
Car crashes are extremely common in the United States with more than 40 million Americans visiting the emergency department for injuries from accidents. Almost 90 percent of these victims are discharged after preliminary treament. University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers conducted a study to analyze musculoskeletal pain outcomes among these people.
For the study, they recruited car crash victims from eight emergency departments across four states. They found that 70 percent of these victims experienced musculoskeletal pain in one or more body regions, six weeks after the accident. One third of the participants reportedly experienced pain in four or more body parts.
"In the U.S., if someone develops chronic neck pain or other pain after a car accident, and they go to their doctor or tell their friends, they are often not believed or are viewed with great suspicion, as if their symptoms are not real and they are just trying to sue someone," said Samuel McLean, MD, MPH, first author of the study and associate professor of anesthesiology and emergency medicine in a press release. "Our findings indicate that persistent pain is very common among those who aren't suing, and that only a minority of those with persistent pain are engaged in litigation."
The most surprising discovery of this study, however, was that only 17 percent of these patients contacted a lawyer to sue the other party involved in the car accident. Of these, 28 percent had persistent moderate or severe neck pain, 13 percent had widespread musculoskeletal pain in seven or more body regions, and 4 percent had a fibromyalgia-like syndrome.
"It is hard enough to be suffering from a persistent pain condition after trauma that is moderate or severe, and/or occurring across many body regions. Unfortunately, these patients also often have to deal with the additional burden not being believed. Hopefully the results of this study will contribute to helping doctors and the public understand that these symptoms are common, including among patients who aren't suing anyone," the authors concluded.
According to statistics, nearly 1.3 million people die in road crashes each year globally, with an average of 3,287 deaths a day. An additional 25 to 50 million people are severely injured or disabled on account of these accidents. Statistics also shows that more than half of motor accidents are caused when young adults aged 15-44 are driving.
