Course of attention and memory after common whiplash: a two‐years prospective study with age, education and gender pair‐matched patients

Attentional functioning and memory of common whiplash patients were evaluated during the first two years after experiencing injury. The study was based on a non‐selected sample of 117 whiplash patients referred from primary care and recruited according to a strict injury definition. All patients had a similar socioeconomic background, all being injured in automobile accidents and fully covered by insurance plans. Two years following initial trauma, 21 patients remained symptomatic. For each of these 21 patients, a counterpart matched by age, educational attainment and gender was selected from the group of patients who had fully recovered during the follow‐up period. Symptomatic patients and matched controls were compared with regard to baseline, six‐months and two‐years findings. Examinations included testing of different aspects of attention (i.e. Digit Span, Corsi Block‐Tapping Test, Trail Making Test, Number Connection Test, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task) and memory functioning (California Verbal Learning Test). Cognitive functioning was assessed in conjunction with self‐ratings of cognitive abilities (Cognitive Failures Questionnaire), well‐being (Well‐being Scale), headache and neckpain intensity, utilized medication and subjective complaints. Results show no impairment of memory in symptomatic patients. In attentional functioning, different levels of improvement were found for symptomatic patients and matched counterparts, with the former showing difficulty at follow‐up with tasks of divided attention. Utilized medication and pain intensity could not explain this difference in recovery of attentional functioning between the groups. These findings suggest problems in selective aspects of attentional functioning after common whiplash, which under real life circumstances may explain these patients' cognitive complaints and cause adaptational problems in daily life.