Pain after whiplash

This latest study from Lithuania1 is an answer to many questions—namely, that the previous difficulties that these researchers had with identifying the late whiplash syndrome in Lithuania is that they were not looking “in the right place”. As it turns out, the problem is that Lithuanians simply are not behaving the way many in western countries expounding myths of whiplash would like. There are some methodological issues which can be considered, as below, but the lesson of discarding “unsightly” data because it is too disturbing to one’s personal view and vested interest in the whiplash controversy has already been taught elsewhere.2 Suffice it to say that the truth has been laid bare and we (those of us struggling with epidemic proportions of the late whiplash syndrome in our own countries) now need to enlighten ourselves and put this data to practical use in helping whiplash patients rather than resisting the inevitable. After completion of the first historical cohort study, this more recent study selects an entirely separate, distinct sample of these “misbehaving” Lithuanians, but in a more intriguing fashion. This is the first true inception cohort study wherein people who …