Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD) is a heterogenous condition with injured people showing various physical and psychological features. Some of these include the presence of central nervous system hyperexcitability, movement and motor disturbances, pain related distress and posttraumatic stress symptoms.
It is also becoming clear that conventional physiotherapy exercise based treatments are less effective in WAD than other musculoskeletal conditions. This lecture will outline the current evidence base for WAD in terms of underlying processes, prognosis and treatment.
Whilst exercise approaches will be touched upon, the focus will be on the management of the patient at ‘high risk’ of non-recovery and how physiotherapists can integrate factors such as sensory disturbances and psychological factors into their management of the patient with WAD. The lecture will have a focus on acute whiplash injury.
Presentation Outline
10 min - Introduction, clinical pathway of recovery following whiplash injury,
10 min - Mechanisms and processes underlying whiplash pain and disability
10 min - Prognosis and identification of poor and good recovery
10 min - Treatment evidence
10 min - 2 case studies
10 min - Conclusions, Q & A